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TEMPE, Ariz. — Eleven.
That’s how many wins the Sun Devils (19-22, 6-12 Pac-12) need to keep their 54-year long 30-win season streak alive. Arizona State has 14 games to do it.
Thirty-two.
That’s how many years it has been since the Sun Devils had a losing season. It occurred in 1985 when the Maroon and Gold finished 31-38.
Sitting three games below .500, the Sun Devils open Phoenix Municipal Stadium for three games against the Stanford Cardinal (28-12, 11-7). The second placed in the Pac-12 Cardinal flies into the Valley of the Sun with a nation best nine game win streak.
Pitching has been Stanford’s key element for success as they boast the seventeenth best combined ERA in the nation (3.20).
All three of Stanford’s weekend starters hold below a 3.50 ERA, and are surprisingly led by Sunday 5-foot-10 Sunday starter Chris Castellanos (7-1, 2.62 ERA). In Castellanos’s last start, he tossed eight shutout innings giving up three hits and striking out 12 to earn the win against then-No. 13 Arizona.
While Arizona State owns a Pac-12 worst 5.62 ERA, a new starter has emerged as a weapon for the Sun Devils. Senior Eder Erives has yet to earn a win on the season (0-2, 3.33 ERA), but has manifested a 2.5 ERA in his last four outings and pitched eight innings of shutout baseball against Oregon in his last appearance.
Hitting wise, Andrew Shaps has reached base safely a career-high 17 games straight and Gage Canning’s .348 batting average is a whole 30 points higher than any Sun Devil or Cardinal entering Friday evening’s matchup.
Arizona State and Stanford will face off on Friday and Saturday at 6:30 p.m. and finish the series at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.