Jennifer Hilderbrand-USA TODAY Sports
Nobody said pitching in Major League Baseball was supposed to be easy and sometimes that fact makes itself clear in marathon games. Last night’s battle between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Los Angeles Dodgers is a great example of that fact. The Diamondbacks were in the lead by two when the game was handed to the bullpens of both teams. From that point the DBacks ‘pen wasn’t as good and that’s why they lost in 14 innings. The pitcher the loss technically goes to is Josh Collmenter but he cannot be saddled with blame.
Collmenter is a horse for this bullpen and last night showed nothing but great stuff for him. He pitched four plus innings of scoreless relief, throwing 74 pitches in the process. It seems that he simply had nothing left in the tank when he gave up back to back long balls in the 14th inning. Who knows what would have happened if Kirk Gibson had taken Collmenter out before that last fateful inning? It doesn’t matter now as the sweep puts the Diamondbacks once again in the crosshairs of a team in second place; this time the Dodgers.
One thing you can be sure about is that next time his number is called Collmenter will give the same great effort he gave last night. Whether it is for one inning or several he has shown to be a leading inning eater in that pen. His 2.85 ERA shows how well he goes about the business of chomping innings away. The last time he went so long was June 19 against the Miami Marlins when he amazingly went six innings of relief giving up 1 hit, 0 runs and striking out 7.
I mean to tell you, this guy is the best pitcher in that bullpen. I highly doubt anyone in that locker room gave him anything but a pat on the back for that performance. He didn’t get the win but he made sure to put away four hard innings that several pitchers could have been made to pitch. It doesn’t get much better than his effort this year.
David Miller is a Senior Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @davidmillerrant, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google+.
