Three takeaways from Arizona State's series win over Kansas

Head coach Willie Bloomquist has to be feeling good right now. He's just watched his Sun Devils wrap up their second series of Big 12 play and both have resulted in wins for his club. The most recent series saw Nu'u Contrades come up big with a walk-off homer to get the series victory over the red hot Jayhawks.

As a reward, Arizona State gets a bit of a break in the scheduling. They travel to Sin City for a one-game tilt against UNLV, who they beat 7-0 earlier this year, before a road weekend series against Utah and then a home stop with Cal State Fullerton. In theory, the Sun Devils should win all five of those games.

But will they? The series win against Kansas was big, but the takeaways aren't unanimously positive.

Offensive inconsistency is concerning

Arizona State has never been short on offensive fireworks in the Bloomquist era; last year was their best, finishing 12th in team batting average and 18th in OPS. That trend has generally continued this season, and the Sun Devils currently rank 68th in batting average and 63rd in OPS.

They've currently got four batters with a batting average over .300 and eight with an OPS over .900, while four players have hit 5+ dingers already. The fireworks are absolutely there.

The problem is that Arizona State has become prone to bursts of offensive production rather than consistent scoring. In 15 of their 24 games this year, the Sun Devils have surpassed five runs, roughly the league average. However, just six of those such games have come in the past two weeks.

More concerning is that the team is 3-6 in games where they fail to reach six or more runs. That's not necessarily an indictment of their bullpen, as several of those losses were very low scoring affairs that saw the Arizona State bats simply unable to get anything going.

Going back to their weekend series against Gonzaga, the Sun Devils have topped six runs in consecutive games just once, which really highlights the inconsistency. Nobody expects them to routinely blow out opponents, but it's concerning to not know which version you're getting with this offense as conference play picks up.

The kids (in the bullpen) are alright

Bloomquist and new pitching coach Jeremy Accardo spent a ton of effort in the offseason revamping their bullpen, and the verdict so far is that they generally succeeded. The Sun Devils have had a couple bad games here and there, but Bloomquist has begun to develop a feel for his bullpen and who he can trust.

And boy does he have some trustworthy arms.

Jonah Giblin and Cole Carlon have been the two most relied upon relievers, each of them with at least 20 innings pitched already. Giblin has a sturdy 2.91 ERA, while Carlon's 3.15 figure is manageable as well. Neither is allowing a batting average above .180 right now.

Josh Butler and Derek Schaefer have both been strong surprises too. Butler is yielding a strong 3.18 ERA across eight appearances with 17 strikeouts, while Schaefer has 12 strikeouts in nine appearances. Both have struggled when exposed to longer stretches on the mound, but have generally shined when asked to work for a frame or two.

Then there's Lucas Kelly, the prized Texas A&M transfer. Until Sunday's game, he hadn't given up a run all season despite 10 innings pitched in nine appearances. Kelly quickly earned a role as the primary set up man before a recent promotion to closer, highlighting the staff's trust in him.

Arizona State has other relievers - Sean Fitzpatrick, Wyatt Halvorson, Rohan Lettow, and Eli Buxton - who have flashed some potential but probably aren't ready to be regular fixtures. Still, Bloomquist has some reliable arms this time around, a satisfying change of pace.

Questions remain at closer

Okay, now that we've talked up the bullpen, we can discuss the elephant in the room: there is no closer.

Arizona State landed Louisville transfer Will Koger to be their closer, but he lost that role quickly. Koger put multiple men on base in all three of his save opportunities to start the year; while he managed to convert the first two, his blown save against Oral Roberts gave the Sun Devils their first loss of the season.

Since then, Koger has seen limited work, with just 4.2 innings pitched across five games. He's allowed multiple baserunners in three of those games and given up runs in three of them as well. Simply put, Bloomquist has lost faith in Koger.

In the aftermath of it all, Bloomquist has been trying things out with his other arms. Schaefer successfully pulled off two saves, but his four runs allowed in a third inning pitched against TCU seemingly dropped him from the closer role. Butler and Halvorson both recorded a save as well, though neither looked convincing doing it.

On Sunday., Bloomquist turned to Kelly, which made sense given his stellar play. Alas, Kelly blew the save and coughed up the lead to Kansas, only for Contrades to save his skin in the bottom of the ninth. That said, Kelly was one out away from ending the game when he surrendered a two-run homer, and given that it was his first runs allowed all year, it's hardly an indictment on him.

Still, the fact remains that Arizona State lacks a clear, identifiable closer at this point. Will Kelly get another shot at the role, or revert back to his setup role that he was crushing? Could Schaefer, who won a national championship with Tennessee last year, see another chance? Or might someone new emerge?

These are all questions that the Sun Devils need to answer, and ideally before they face the red hot Wildcats in two weeks.