At some point, you knew it was coming. The Sun Devils spun the handle of their jack-in-the-box toy, gleefully wincing with each rotation. For a moment, it felt like they could spin for days with no repercussions.
That was naive. The top was going to fling open, that was a guarantee.
On Tuesday night, the hatch of ASU’s shiny toy unhinged, it’s leading weakness jumping out and staring it directly in the face. The clown was ugly. It was mercurial. Was it foreshadowing? Maybe.
The Sun Devils were forced to rely on youth and inexperience following Sunday’s 17-16 marathon victory over Arizona. Seven pitchers took the mound for ASU (25-2) against its rival, depleting an already scarce 13-man pitching staff.
Of that 13 consists of a quartet of reliable relievers, a group that has shown itself to pitch in the zone, limit walks and garner the maturity for high-leverage situations. But Erik Tolman, Brady Corrigan, Sam Romero, and Chaz Montoya all pitched on Sunday -- either looking gassed in a short stint, like the former two or throwing nearly two innings, as the latter pair did.
ASU head coach Tracy Smith wanted them nowhere near the mound Tuesday.
Ideally, for Smith, his blistering offense would jump all over an under-performing Long Beach State team (4-23) within the first five innings, affording him some flexibility with his bullpen pieces. Instead, the Dirtbags jumped all over bullpen-day starter Dom Cacchione, a freshman who had nearly 10 innings of cleanup service under his belt.
He recorded one out, allowing two hits and a pair of free passes that transformed into a four-spot on the first-inning scoreboard. From there, young relievers Colby Davis, Blake Burzell, Luke La Flam and Marc Lidd combined to allow eight hits, 10 walks, and seven earned runs in ASU’s 14-9 loss to LBSU.
“It makes my job a little bit easier (knowing some of the bullpen arms aren’t 100 percent there),” Smith said. “To me, it’s all about the competition piece, that you’re out there competing, you’re being aggressive. Some nights, you’re going to have good stuff, some nights you’re not.”
Had Cacchione gone three or four innings and then Davis responded with a pair of his own, even if they had given up five runs, Smith and the Sun Devils wouldn’t have been fretting. Their offense can work with that.
Instead, ASU trailed 9-3 after two innings. It’s pitchers, aside from the three-inning, no-hit showing from two-way player Marc Lidd, weren’t competing, walking a total of 12 batters, six of which came around to score.
“If we throw strikes and make teams beat us,” Smith said, “we’re going to be pretty tough to beat because we’re going to score some runs.”
The Devils are also tough to beat when they have a full arsenal of rested relievers, mainly its core four of Tolman, Corrigan, Romero, and Montoya.
“It’s good. That’s part of the thing you’re weighing,” Smith said. “When you look back at the shortened result of (RJ Dabovich) on Sunday probably had as much impact as anything because instead of throwing a freshman out there who has never started a game before, it’s usually Sam Romero.”
But that leaves ASU in a precarious spot where it's so heavily relying on solid outings from its starters. If they don’t come and Smith has to keep dipping his hand back in the bullpen, all the sudden the Devils are caught in a tough spot for two straight games. Not exactly ideal.
With few options to turn to, ASU can turn and turn its jack-in-the-box, but eventually it’s going to run out of reliable relievers and the clown is going to pop up.
Sunday seems like it could be an anomaly. Heck, it took an incredibly poor outing from Dabovich and a 5-hour back-and-forth hitting onslaught followed by a midweek game with no starters available for the clown to pop up.
Tuesday’s game doesn’t matter. Forget about Long Beach State’s record for a second. ASU is 25-2 heading into the fourth week of conference play with only one conference loss on its resume. To this point, there’s little to complain about.
But Tuesday’s situation resembles one the Sun Devils would likely face in a regional. And yes, at 25-2, I think it’s fair to assume ASU will get there. But, Smith and Co. may be in line to play four games in three days, not exactly the saving grace for a team with a limited bullpen. A bad Friday or Saturday start and a taxed bullpen wouldn’t exactly make ASU the favorite for one, let alone two games that it may have to play on a regional Sunday.
For now, Smith, who made the 2013 College World Series with Indiana, has a philosophy for trustworthy pitchers.
“Give me eight. Give me eight guys,” Smith said. “This is how I’ve always been. Just give me eight guys who we feel like we know what we’re going to get night in and night out.”
Including its three starters, ASU currently has seven. It has two months to find another. Until then, Smith will keep spinning, hoping the latch never pops open.
