Diamondbacks 2, Angels 9: Collmenter Bedevilled By Angels

I hope Josh Collmenter's ERA enjoyed its brief sojourn down to single digits. Because it didn't stay there long. Two batters, in fact, who tripled and homered respectively. The Angels had hit for the collective cycle with one out in the opening inning, as five of their first six batters reached, four of them scoring. Collmenter went on to allow eight runs in four innings, on ten hits, which pushed his spring ERA back to 11.81. I know its only spring training and all, but 27 hits in 16 innings of work, with as many walks as strikeouts, aren't inspiring confidence, to the point one wonders if there's still something wrong with Jose.

Now, admittedly, the Angels offense was scary, even before their signing of the best hitter in the major leagues over the past decade. It's now positively rated NC-17, for graphic violence, language, horror images, slime and gore. Our offense this afternoon? In comparison, probably PG, for mischievous conflict, some mild language, and brief smoking. Miguel Montero, with a hit and a walk, was the only Diamondback to reach base safely more than once. Paul Goldschmidt drove in our first run, with a second-inning double, and Ryan Roberts completed our scoring with his fourth home-run of spring. Seems like a while since his last one.

After Collmenter's departure, the Hernandez brothers took over for the fifth and sixth innings. Okay, I made the "brothers" thing up [well, skin me alive and call me luggage: turns out they are brothers!], but it can't be often a team sends two consecutive pitchers to the mound with the same last name. Here, it was the well-known David and the basically unknown Raymond Hernandez, who was our 48th-round draft pick in June. However, you couldn't split their lines, both men allowing one hit, with no walks or strikeouts in their inning of work. Brad Ziegler allowed a run on two hits in the eighth, and Brett Lorin mopped things up with a hitless ninth for the Diamondbacks.

Ugh. Maybe this explains why we've been keeping our starting pitchers away from actual hitters over the past few games. This certainly wasn't what you want to see, a week before Opening Day. Though it has to be said, the Angels with C.J. Wilson pitching, will probably beat quite a few teams this season. Might even be us again, since we face Anaheim in interleague play for three games on the road, in the middle of June. On this showing, let's hope Collmenter is not scheduled to start any of them.

hotclaws had twice as many comments as anyone else this afternoon, with second and third going to Bcawz and , NASCARbernet respectively. Also present were diamondfacts, grimmy01, txzona, Clefo, LiamNeeson, blank_38, AARONO, Jim McLennan, sb24ws2005, 4 Corners Fan, jjwaltrip, shoewizard, Scottyyy, piratedan7 and Oxygen48, though the last-named only qualifies through managing to post his comment on the wrong blog. I will, however, award a Comment of the Thread for this one, since it's something definitely worth bearing in mind:

We have to remember

that last year’s Spring Training was horrid. And the season turned out positively.

Life's a dance you learn as you go.

by 4 Corners Fan on Mar 30, 2012 3:55 PM MST up reply actions

We finish off March with a split-squad double header tomorrow afternoon. Half the team heads off to Surprise to play the Royals, while the other half get to stay at Salt River Fields and face the Dodgers. The latter game will be broadcast on KTAR 620, for your listening pleasure.