Moments after ASU (6-4) dropped game two of its series against UC Irvine 10-9, head coach Willie Bloomquist sounded off on the rule that was the reason for his sixth-inning ejection Saturday afternoon.
“I want to start by saying this is not the umpire’s fault,” he clarified. “But whoever made the rules of this pitch clock stuff is destroying the game of baseball. Enough is enough; this is an absolute joke.”
Reliever Owen Stevenson was called for a pitch clock violation for stepping off of the rubber for a second time during an at-bat.
“My whole argument is who cares if he steps off as long as he gets the pitch delivered in 20 seconds,” Bloomquist said. “They’re screwing with the game to the point where they’re destroying it. They’re making things up just to appease people who can’t sit through a game for more than two hours. It’s an absolute joke.”
Bloomquist clearly stated that this grievance was broader than today’s game. The pitch clock rules, as much as he despises them, were far from the main reason ASU lost on Saturday.
On Friday night, Arizona State gifted UC Irvine free bases by way of errors and other defensive miscues. Saturday’s treat was on the tab of the pitching staff. Four ASU pitchers combined to allow 12 free bases, hitting six Irvine batters and walking six more.
“If you keep living dangerously, you’re going to get burned,” Bloomquist said of his team’s issuing of free bags.
It seemed that based on off-season moves alone, Sam Peraza had shored up the pitching staff significantly. It seemed through the first six games of the season that that was absolutely the case. Since then, ASU pitchers have taken a turn for the worst. In its past four games, ASU has allowed 16, nine, 16, and 10 runs. In its first five, Sun Devils surrendered just 16 total. It has been an alarming change of pace since those good times that feel increasingly distant every day. The rest of the team isn’t losing any confidence in the pitchers, and Ethan Long said they shouldn’t be losing any in themselves, either.
“Our pitching staff, we have some dogs,” he said with a slow nod. “I’ve seen these guys throw stuff I’d never seen before. I’m very confident in them. We have to stay together.”
Despite his hatred for the pitch clock, Bloomquist wasn’t going to allow that to be used as an excuse for a pitcher’s struggles.
“We’ve been practicing it all fall and all spring, and the bottom line is we gave up 12 free bases today between hit guys and walks. You can’t win like that. I know I sound like a broken record, but bottom line our pitchers have to get better.
Khristian Curtis made his third start of the year on the bump. Unfortunately for ASU, his final line looks a lot more like the loss he took at Mississippi State than it does the dominant shutout outing he turned in on opening weekend. He gave up one run in each of the second, third, and fourth innings before loading the bases in the top half of the fifth.
“I think everybody knows he’s got great stuff,” Bloomquist said matter of factly. “UCI’s got a lineup that makes you earn every out. If he can be a little more efficient early in games, he’s going to be able to go a lot longer.”
With Curtis running out of gas in the top of the fifth, Bloomquist elected to go to Brock Peery with the bases loaded and two outs in what was then a tie ballgame. The decision was a questionable one, given Peery’s issues with command early in his outings. Peery set at the belt and delivered his first pitch from that deceptive sidearm slot straight into the front leg of the UC Irvine batter. Just like that, the Anteaters were back on top. Peery then allowed a single that plated two more runs before walking another batter, and only then did he record an inning-ending strikeout.
“I’ll be the first to admit, I botched the call bringing in Peery,” Bloomquist said. “Curtis talked me into letting him stay out there and get the (previous batter), and then you could see he ran out of gas. So then I went and got Peery, and things unraveled a little bit from there. Even though it was only the fifth, I thought that was the big turning point in the game.”
All three of the runs that crossed the plate with Peery on the mound were charged to Curtis. Owen Stevenson took over in the sixth inning; that would be Bloomquist’s last. Stevenson was phenomenal in his first two innings of work but lost it in the eighth. He hit two Anteaters and walked another, and with two outs, Irvine did what it had done for the entirety of the first two games. They made it hurt. Chase Call belted a grand slam to right center field, blowing the game open and ensuring ASU would allow double-digit runs for the third time in four games.
Despite the five-run hole, the Sun Devils refused to go quietly in the ninth. UC Irvine closer Jacob King caught whatever bug was plaguing the rubber when he toed it, walking four Sun Devils in the process of a near collapse. ASU pushed across four runs in a desperate bottom of the ninth but came up just short when Jacob Tobias grounded out with the tying run at second base.
“My initial reaction was a word I probably can’t say in here,” Ethan Long said of the team’s comeback effort coming up just short. “I told Toby, hey, keep your head up because he’s been swinging the crap out of it.”
With his team trailing 3-0 in the fourth, Jacob Tobias started the first of ASU’s two comeback efforts of the afternoon. He dug in with runners on first and second, and nobody out. He worked a full count before ripping a sinking line drive to center. Irvine center fielder Luke Spillane lunged at the last second but came up empty, allowing the ball to skip all the way to the wall. Ryan Campos and Ethan Long both came around to score after singling to lead off the frame. Luke Hill didn’t wait long to drive Tobias in, tying the game with a sac fly on the first pitch of his at-bat.
Conventional wisdom would say that triples are few and far between for a power hitting first baseman like Tobias. But, with his three bagger on Saturday, he became ASU’s active leader in triples with three. It’s his second of the season after he enjoyed a three-run triple at Mississippi State.
ASU now sits at 6-4, with eight games remaining before conference play begins on March 17. After Friday night’s loss, Bloomquist discussed the importance of “growing up” and how the team has several players that need to start maturing very quickly. If Arizona State wants to avoid the losing non-conference slate that had them playing catch up for most of last season, they’ll need to clean up many elements of their game.
“Button your chin strap and get ready for the challenge,” Bloomquist said as he left his postgame press conference.
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