From his seat in the third-row seat just off the corner of ASU’s dugout, the attendance of the most recognizable player on Arizona State’ basketball roster, point guard Remy Martin, was announced to Phoenix Muni. Fresh off the Sun Devils’ upset win over No. 14 Oregon Thursday night, applause poured on Martin as he spun around and waved.
A few feet away, what was transpiring on the field was less poetic.
Pitcher Boyd Vander Kooi was on the bump, firing off warm-up pitch after warm-up pitch. His situation was less than ideal.
A Boston College runner stood on each base, staring at the 6-foot-5, 220-pound Vander Kooi firing away on the rubber and probably wondering who that Remy guy was. Just before that, pitching coach Jason Kelly had followed the night’s starter, Cooper Benson, into the dugout after the freshman walked in a run in what was a shaky, two-inning outing.
And tucked away in the dugout, there was Justin Fall. You know, the towering left-hander who most of the 2,590 expected to be hurling on Friday. Why? Because, well, he did so this time last week. And, well, he was phenomenal. So, why wouldn’t he be pitching on this Friday? And then the Friday after that and so on?
In ASU’s Opening Day victory over Villanova last Friday, Fall, a junior college transfer from New Jersey, dealt. His numbers looked like that of a Friday starter, that of an ace. He tossed six shutout innings, allowing just three hits while striking out a half dozen.
Despite splitting a four-game series last weekend, ASU’s arms weren’t the problem. Fall, Vander Kooi, Benson, and St. Mary’s transfer Tyler Thornton, in that order, all allowed two or fewer earned runs.
In essence, if it ain’t broke, why fix it?
So, why did head coach Tracy Smith start Benson?
“He’s good,” Smith said.
Ok, but over Fall?
“He’s good, too,” Smith added. “Boyd’s good. Thornton’s good. (Eric) Tolman’s good. I’ve said it, we’ve got five guys who we can run out there … All those guys could pitch on Friday, but, unfortunately, there’s only one Friday spot.
“We look at matchups and what gives us the best chance to win every single game each weekend. We’re not really in the mode yet of, ‘This is the Friday guy. This is the Saturday guy. This is the Sunday guy.”
In other words, Smith feels so strongly about the depth and talent of his pitchers that he wants to keep his rotation in flux -- to be evaluated on a weekend-by-weekend basis and chosen based upon who gives them the best chance to win on a nightly basis.
On paper, it makes some sense. Analyze pitchers on a game-to-game basis -- account for everything and plan your matchups accordingly. It’s a luxury of depth, something Smith hasn’t enjoyed in his time at ASU.
“To have the options we have,” Smith said. “To have five guys, who I legitimately feel can be weekend starters, and have the ability to mix-and-match with those guys; and, the important quality in that, that all of them buy-in -- that’s a pretty good thing to have.”
But, also, that’s just on paper. Baseball is a game dictated by routines. Players, especially pitchers, like to know when they’re going to pitch so they can prepare and build up to their start correspondingly. This throws that out the window.
“I’m a big routine guy,” Vander Kooi said. “But, in baseball, you have to adapt.”
As it pertained to Friday, Smith liked Benson over Fall because, although they are both lefties, Benson induces more fly balls, which won’t carry as far in the colder night air rather than in the afternoon on Sunday.
It worked to perfection. Even though Benson didn’t have it, Vander Kooi was rested and ready. He came in, pitched seven great innings and ASU got the win. But it seems far-fetched to think that’s going to happen every night. To think that there’s no harm in damaging routines. To think that, down the road, there won’t be any side effects.
As much as the decision to have no set starters presents questions going forward, it didn’t matter Friday night. ASU’s bats finally came alive. The Sun Devils set season-highs in seemingly every category.
They scored 10 runs -- four more than they had this year. They tallied 11 hits -- their previous high was five. Gage Workman, Alika Williams, and Trevor Hauver all homered -- the first Sun Devils not named Spencer Torkelson to hit one out of Phoenix Muni.
As Smith predicted last week, the hitting would come around. He was never worried about that, about the thing many expect will carry the Sun Devils to Omaha for the first time in a decade. There were too many draft picks littered in the Sun Devils’ lineup for it to consistently be shut down.
And that’s why the pitching, and all the moves associated with it, is so vital. In some respects, the success of their season hinges on whether Smith’s fluid-starter’s experiment pays off.
