If you look at the pitching line that Josh Collmenter had Thursday night against the Atlanta Braves, you would say he struggled. You would probably say that, combined with his previous two other starts, he probably should be replaced in the starting rotation.
After all, when you enter the game with an ERA of 12.86 and then have a pitching line that is 5.1 innings, six hits and four runs. Nothing impressive.
However, that line does not exactly reflect how much better he was.
He started roughly, walking a batter and allowing a home run. However, before giving up a very unfortunate infield hit in the sixth inning, he had retired 12 of 14 batters and a streak of eight straight set down.
He was pulled in the sixth inning with two runners on, but those hits were not on bad pitches. Brian McCann cued a ball off the end of his bat when he was almost done with his swing that just stayed inside the third base line. Then Dan Uggla hit a blooper that landed between Aaron Hill and Gerardo Parra in right field.
It was then that Kirk Gibson pulled him in favor of Wade Miley, who promptly allowed both inherited runners to score and another one after that.
The performance overall was markedly better than his previous two starts. It wasn't great, but definitely better.
If anything, he earned himself another start or two.