Diamondbacks’ season rides on Josh Collmenter

An offseason of building, months of spring training and a
grueling regular season have all come down to this moment
for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Trailing the Milwaukee Brewers 2-0 in their best of five
series, Arizona will send rookie Josh Collmenter to the
mound, needing the guy with the funky delivery to save
their
season.

“Certainly one of the things that we thought about by
going
with Josh is that he has done a good job,” D-backs manager
Kirk Gibson said. “He is different. He’s different than
Ian
[Kennedy] and [Daniel Hudson] and he’s had great composure
throughout the year.”

Going with the 25-year-old over, say, veteran Joe Saunders
may seem like an odd move, but the fact of the matter is
the rookie has been consistently good this year and had
some success against the Brewers.

In two starts against Tuesday’s opponent Collmenter is 1-0, having pitched 14 innings while giving up just six hits
and zero runs. He struck out 10.

“I think against the Brewers I’ve had a lot of things
working, I was able to establish the fastball and work the
change-up in, and I think really kept them uncomfortable,”
the right-hander said. “As the game got on I think, them
being such an aggressive team, it kind of worked against
them, they got a little bit frustrated.”

The D-backs hope to see Collmenter’s success continue, as
his job is to frustrate a lineup that has really had its
way with Arizona this series.

Milwaukee has scored 14 runs in two games, with Ryan Braun
(6 for 8) and Prince Fielder (3 for 8) leading the way.

So Collmenter, whose fastball generally sits in the high-80s, has a tough task ahead of him. However, he said he
won’t treat this start any different than any of his other
24.

“If you let anything make it bigger than it is then those
things start affecting you,” he said of the pressure. “If
you can just treat it like any other game as best as you
can, then I think you’re going to have better results that
way,” he said.

And no matter what happens Tuesday night, this season has
been one Collmenter said he used to dream about.

“The run we’ve been on, to be able to experience all this
in my first season is truly tremendous,” he said. “I don’t
think last year, I would have ever envisioned, maybe you
think about it and dream about it but when it comes down
to reality you don’t necessarily think that this is
definitely going to happen.

“You can’t plan that out.”

Arizona Sports’ Kyndra de St. Aubin contributed to this
report

Follow @theAdamGreen