It’s The Battle Of The Josh’s In The Rubber Game, Collmenter Vs. Beckett

Dodgers Lineup vs. Arizona-4-20-14

Gordon 2B

Crawford LF

Hanley SS

Gonzalez 1B

Puig RF

Ethier CF

Uribe 3B

Federowicz C

Beckett P

Josh Collmenter-0-1 vs. Josh Beckett-0-0

Which club has the better Josh? That’s the question that will be answered today at Dodger Stadium as two Josh’s will go to war in a battle of the Josh’s, Collmenter versus Beckett.

Last night the Dodger offense was “Josh’d” to life with eight runs, sparked by Andre Ethier’s beautiful three-run home run to lead the Dodgers to an 8-6 come from behind win. The Dodger bullpen still stinks of course, and almost blew it, but at least the offense woke up a bit. The Dodgers hung onto win, and evened the series. Today the Dodgers will go for the series win in the rubber game series finale. If the Dodgers win they’ll have won seven of their first eight versus the Snakes this season. I assure you I am not “Joshing” with you.

Our Josh is better than yours, Arizona-Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

We haven’t seen Collmenter in a while, but he’s the 28-year old over the top right hander from Homer, Michigan. Yes, he is really from a town called “Homer”. Let’s hope that he lives up to his town’s name. The Dbacks moved Collmenter to the bullpen a few years ago and he’s been their long-man ever since. When I say he goes over the top, I mean it. He looks like one of those pitching machines.

Recently the Dbacks have moved him back into the rotation, and he hasn’t started against the Dodgers since July 6, 2012. In that game, Collmenter threw six innings, allowing one earned run on six hits, with six whiffs. Collmenter and the Snakes won that game 5-3.

Since 2012, Collmenter has only made one start. This year he is 0-1 with a 3.75 ERA, in five games pitched. He’s thrown 12 innings this year and has eight

Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

whiffs and five walks. Against the Dodgers in his career, he is 3-5 with a 5.06 ERA in 12 games. This will be Collmenter’s fifth start against the Dodgers. At Dodger Stadium, Collmenter is 2-2 with a 4.85 ERA.

The Dodgers are batting .348 (16 for 46) with three home runs against Collmenter.

PA

AB

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

OPS

Andre Ethier

10

8

4

2

0

0

1

1

0

.500

.600

.750

1.350

Juan Uribe

9

9

2

1

0

0

1

0

2

.222

.222

.333

.556

Matt Kemp

7

7

3

0

0

1

5

0

1

.429

.429

.857

1.286

Dee Gordon

4

4

3

0

0

0

0

0

0

.750

.750

.750

1.500

Hanley Ramirez

4

3

1

0

0

1

1

1

0

.333

.500

1.333

1.833

Carl Crawford

3

3

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.000

.000

.000

.000

Yasiel Puig

3

3

1

1

0

0

1

0

0

.333

.333

.667

1.000

Scott Van Slyke

3

3

1

0

0

1

2

0

0

.333

.333

1.333

1.667

Adrian Gonzalez

2

2

1

0

0

0

0

0

1

.500

.500

.500

1.000

Hyun-jin Ryu

2

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

.000

.000

.000

.000

Zack Greinke

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

1.000

Paul Maholm

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

.000

.000

.000

.000

Justin Turner

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

.000

.000

.000

.000

Chris Withrow

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

Total

51

46

16

4

0

3

11

3

7

.348

.400

.630

1.030

The Dodgers will counter with their own Josh, Josh Beckett. In Beckett’s last start in San Francisco, he threw five shutout frames, but walked five batters. The Dodgers  would eventually lose that game long after Beckett left, and he has not had a decision this season.

Beckett has thrown nine frames, and made two starts. His ERA is 4.00, and he’s whiffed nine and walked six. Beckett is 2-5 with a 3.90 ERA in nine starts against Arizona. The veteran right hander has whiffed 61 in 57.2 innings pitched, and has a complete game.

Beckett is 3-3 with a 3.99 ERA all-time at Dodger Stadium. Beckett has held the Dbacks to a .269 (35 for 130) average against, with two home runs, and a .735 OPS. Aaron Hill has done all the heavy lifting against Beckett. The second baseman is hitting .395 (15 for 38) against Beckett, with a home run and seven doubles. That means Hill has collected eight extra-base hits off of Beckett.

PA

AB

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

Aaron Hill

41

38

15

7

0

1

8

2

5

.395

.439

.658

Eric Chavez

28

26

6

3

0

0

4

1

7

.231

.250

.346

Miguel Montero

11

10

2

0

0

1

1

1

3

.200

.273

.500

Gerardo Parra

11

11

3

1

0

0

0

0

3

.273

.273

.364

Cliff Pennington

11

10

5

1

1

0

0

1

2

.500

.545

.800

Paul Goldschmidt

10

9

2

0

0

0

2

1

5

.222

.300

.222

Martin Prado

10

10

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.000

.000

.000

Cody Ross

6

6

1

0

0

0

0

0

2

.167

.167

.167

Brandon McCarthy

3

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.000

.000

.000

A.J. Pollock

3

3

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

.333

.333

.667

Mark Trumbo

3

3

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.000

.000

.000

Trevor Cahill

2

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

.000

.000

.000

Total

139

130

35

13

1

2

15

6

28

.269

.304

.431

So which Josh will come out victorious at Dodger Stadium this afternoon? Will it be the Snake’s Collmenter? Or will it be the Dodger’s veteran Beckett?

The Dodgers are 11-7 on the season and have a one game lead over the Giants in the NL West. The club is 3-4 at home and a win Sunday afternoon would give them their first home series win of the season. No Joshing around this time guys.

Stay tuned, and check back over here after the game for all the highlights in our game recap. The game starts at 1:10 PM.

Go Blue!