(Photo: Jessica Carnivale/WCSN)
Justin Fall may not have had his best stuff or the best start Sunday afternoon. That’s been the case more than often than not in the young season for the Arizona State junior left-hander, as the highly-touted southpaw doesn’t have the numbers most expected him to and has fell off of Fangraphs’ board for the 2020 MLB Draft.
But for the second start in a row, it hasn’t mattered.
Fall struggled early in the final game of a three game set against Fresno State Sunday. His fastball couldn’t seem to get anyone out, as it missed locations and was plagued by the Bulldogs bats, giving Fresno State leads of 1-0 and 3-2 in the first three innings.
“That’s been a concern,” pitching coach Jason Kelly said after the game. “That third inning has been his deal over the last couple of outings. We wanted to get through it. But this one was different. There wasn’t hard contact.”
Fall’s offspeed and breaking pitches were there, and they were excellent. The junior got his outs generating swing and misses with the 12-6 curveball – a pitch that moves so much that it was the single reason senior Nick Cheema caught Sunday instead of junior Nate Baez, per associate head coach Ben Greenspan. Fall kept Fresno State in striking distance with back-to-back 1-2-3 innings in the fourth and fifth, which helped ASU’s vaunted offense do its job.
“[Fall] came out in the fourth and showed some aggression,” Kelly said. “He got a couple punch outs and he got over the hump.”
Thanks to two home runs by junior third baseman Gage Workman and more hot hitting from junior right fielder Hunter Jump, the Sun Devils won Sunday’s contest 8-3, completing a three game sweep of the Bulldogs (8-7) and improving ASU’s record to 13-4 heading into Pac-12 conference play.
“It’s always good to be playing good,” Kelly said. “We know the Pac-12 ratchets up a bit. It gets a little bit tougher. It’ll be more stressful. The last 15 games have prepared us for that. We’ve had some up and downs. We’ve blown teams out. We’ve been in dog fights.”
Workman’s two homer day could be seen as a breakthrough for the switching third baseman. It’s been a slow start to 2020 for the junior, who prior to Sunday was batting just .234/.306/.375, but did have 11 RBI in 64 at-bats.
“He’s such a great kid and such a hard worker,” Kelly said. “Everybody is pulling for him and you want him to have success because it helps us win, but you also want him to have success because you know how hard he works. Nobody is more committed to this team winning than he is.”
Now, those numbers have risen to .250/.316/.471.
“To see him have success, the whole dugout gains energy,” Kelly said.
Down 3-2 in the bottom of the fourth, Workman stepped up to the plate as the first batter of the inning. The third baseman got a fastball and sent it 404 feet to dead center-field, with a blazing exit velocity of 109 MPH, according to ASU Baseball Analytics.
“I was just lucky the win was blowing out,” Workman said.
Workman’s blast ignited the inning for the Sun Devils, as junior shortstop Alika Williams popped up a sac-fly later to make it 4-3.
His second of the day came after action had already occurred. Riding that 4-3 lead, ASU entered the bottom of the fifth with some of its hottest hitters up, including junior left fielder Trevor Hauver, junior second baseman Drew Swift and Jump. Hauver lined a single before Swift was hit by a pitch, and for the third game in a row, Jump delivered with runners on. The junior cleared the bases with a double down the first base line and extended ASU’s lead to 6-3.
“You can call it contagious [hitting],” Workman said. “I think it’s just a good lineup, all the way up and down. It’s just about who is going to get it done that day.”
Workman made sure the Sun Devils weren’t done.
After Fresno State pulled junior right-hander Oscar Carvajal – who lasted four innings and gave up seven runs while striking out four – Workman faced junior left-hander Nikoh Mitchell. The reliever threw just one pitch before the Workman lifted his second homer of the day, but wasn’t charged with the run.
Workman’s home runs Sunday came from opposite sides of the plate. The switch-hitter said it’s the first time that’s ever happened in his career.
“That was pretty cool,” Workman said.
Fall was pulled after six innings for freshman right-hander Seth Tomczak, who made his second appearance of the season.
More was expected of both Tomczak and Fall this season – Tomczak just has not seen the innings that were projected for the 6’4 righty while Fall’s numbers haven’t been as strong as one thought. But for now, both of their performances are getting the job done, and with an offense as potent as ASU’s and a pitching staff with as many options as the Sun Devils, having arms that can be competent at any time is valuable yet overwhelming.
“There’s going to be some tough conversations,” Kelly said. “All of our guys have been great. They want to win. They want to do anything they can to win. Those conversations will be difficult because you don’t want to do that to somebody. But we’re going to have to do that.”
