(Photo: Riley Trujillo/WCSN)
With no outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Arizona State baseball’s deficit was equal to the number of runners on base: one.
Hunter Bishop idled at first with the bag, the first baseman and almost 4,000 spectators waiting to see what his and his team’s next move would be.
The stolen base was simply not an option. With no outs in the inning, the Devils could ill-afford to risk their single lifeline.
Their options were simple and they were succinctly stated yet largely understood. They could bunt and move Bishop to second, sacrificing an out and making every next move crucial, or they could continue playing along the lines of their season-spanning strategy: see the ball, hit the ball and put it as far away from the plate as possible.
The arguments, either way, were understandable. The score was 3-2 in favor of the UCLA Bruins and moving Bishop, a player with above-average speed, to second base with a bunt would have allowed ASU to tie the game with a single. That also squeezes their margin for error to a microscopic pile of dust. With two outs to play with, striking out would not have been on the table and there was room for just one productive out.
Alternatively, Tracy Smith could have just stuck to the plan. Allow his hitters to hit and hope that they would move the ball around the field to plate at least the tying run. The margin for error was similarly small but the extra out to play with was a cushion for a mishap.
The Sun Devils went with the latter. They struck out three times. They lost the game.
The loss and Bishop’s unchanged position from first base presented a large question for Smith to answer:
Was it time to start playing small ball?
With the hindsight of Friday’s result, the easy answer would be yes. The nation’s top teams have produced large scale numbers by playing small scale baseball. UCLA did it in their win against the Devils and Oregon State did the same thing just a few weeks ago. And, when both those teams played the Devils the games had a common denominator: ASU lost.
Pull some learning out of those results and the “if you can’t beat them join them” logic holds true. ASU didn’t beat them but they also haven’t joined them. When they had the chance Friday, they didn’t play small ball.
There are two ways to read into this. One is to extrapolate the ideology that in order for ASU to change their outcomes in close games they need to change their approach, and to that there is certainly some truth. However, the Devils’ best route may not actually be to play small ball.
Take the ninth inning situation against the Bruins for example.
Bishop was on first and with no outs in the inning. On the mound was one of the nation’s better relief arms in Holden Powell.
Bunt and Bishop gets to second base, but there is also an out in the inning. Then, Smith would have been left hoping that either Erik Tolman or Gage Workman, both of whom struck out in reality, would have been able to score Bishop from second instead of ending the game.
Now sure, fundamentally the Devils should be able to do that. They should be able to count on a bunt, the pressure of a man on second and some subsequent solid baseball to, at the very least, tie the game. But the reality of this team is that they really can’t do that and they have to rely on their ability to grind out at-bats and score runs the hard way.
Now, why is that?
The Devils strike out a lot. In today’s day and age of baseball, that is more common practice than it is a flaw but, regardless, it’s this team’s truth. They are free swingers and, for the most part in 2019, that has worked out just fine.
But, small ball has no room for strikeouts. If a player whiffs hard there is just one out to play with and on a night where the Devils struck out 12 times in nine innings, there was truly no guarantee that they would not have struck out with Bishop on second.
“I was not going to bunt,” Smith said. “I was not going to give up an out on that.”
Oddly, Smith was right. With the UCLA pitching playing the way they were and the Devils rather common practice of striking out always a factor, playing for hard contact rather than keeping the ball in the infield was probably a safer play.
However, by that logic, ASU can’t watch pitches in the ninth. Two of three outs in the final frame of the contest were punchouts looking. If you want to play to swing, you actually have to do that.
In fairness to Friday night’s particular situation, there were some questionable calls by the umpires that forced a crucial strikeout looking but using that as a wall of defense won’t work. A swing-away strategy must involve actual swings.
That is how the Devils can win games. They need to play to their strengths and avoid their weaknesses. Putting themselves down an out to move a runner over would not have played to their strengths when facing a team that strikes out batters 32.7 percent of the time.
Baseball is relative to the situation. For a team that successfully hits for power, taking away the team’s strength and changing it against the nation’s best team is best described as counterintuitive. Smith knew that and he made it clear.
Conversely, there are situations in which small ball is the way to go.
Against a team built with less than stellar pitching or a team that pitches to contact, playing small ball is safe. But against UCLA it still might not have been the right decision.
Stealing bases and bunting works but it is highly situational. Friday night wasn’t that situation. Instead, Smith went large and in that moment it was the right move. The Sun Devils just didn’t get the result they wanted.
