Arizona State came into Sunday’s series finale at rival Arizona with a chance to take the series and put a feather in their cap for what should be a very nervous selection Monday in just over a month. After a highly emotional game one loss and a physically taxing game two win, the Sun Devils seemingly had nothing left to give in Tucson on Sunday.

This series loss is unlike others ASU has suffered this year. There were no mental mistakes. No glaring physical errors that ended up being costly. What ultimately plagued Willie Bloomquist’s squad this weekend was attrition.

Arizona State’s lineup as currently constructed is one of the two or three best in the PAC-12 from top to bottom. It showcases speed, power, and average at every level.

Scoring runs in every way possible hasn’t been a huge problem for this team all year long; it’s been the pitching. Depth, quality, consistency, you name it. This isn’t any big news flash, I know, but the lack of those three aforementioned elements hadn’t reared its ugly head like it did Sunday at any point during the season’s first two months. Simply put, the Sun Devils ran out of gas on the mound.

Although he didn’t explicitly say it on Friday night, Willie Bloomquist’s moves in the later innings of that contest foreshadowed the severity of the pitching staff’s issues that were displayed on Sunday (and to a lesser extent on Saturday.) It seemed questionable to allow Jared Glenn to face the lineup a second time in the eighth inning. But when Chase Webster came out of Sunday’s game after just six pitches with shoulder tightness, it was clear why he wasn’t summoned with a two-run lead on Friday. When Ethan Long, whose wrist kept him out of the lineup for the second day, made his first pitching appearance of the year in a disastrous bottom of the seventh, the situation was even more clear.

Tyler Meyer was a pleasant surprise in the first half of the season. He consistently touched 94 on the radar gun with his fastball and solidified himself as one of ASU’s weekend starters. It wasn’t clear just how much of a support beam he was to the starting staff, as he and his shoulder have caused headaches for Bloomquist and Sam Peraza during the last three weeks.

“We’ve got some horses down right now,” Bloomquist said following Sunday’s game. “Not mentally but physically. A lot of arms that are not fresh.”

He’s not just referring to the pitching staff, but the hanging arms are precisely what kept the Sun Devils from winning this series.

In February 2021, three pitchers went down with torn UCLs requiring Tommy John surgery. As obviously devastating as that was for the pitching staff on that team, it was a quick and painless execution. The “hanging,” “stiff,” and “tight” arms plaguing this year’s staff during the dog days of late April have created a level of uncertainty no coach hopes to deal with.

Health is just the latest snag the Sun Devils have caught in what has been an up and down 2022. Early on, it was the bullpen’s inability to hold leads. Then it was the potent lineup struggling to hit situationally, squandering prime scoring opportunities for much of the non-conference slate. Finally, excellent starting pitching at the beginning of the season gave way to a mediocre performance from that group of late.

Now, it’s the injury bug.

“Whoever can give us innings on Tuesday, we’re certainly looking to use them. But not at the expense of anyone’s health.”

If Willie Bloomquist is being tested by the proverbial baseball Gods during his first season at the helm, they’re not holding back.