Now we know Cowan is starting, who’s next, and how soon do you go to them?

I think it’s gotta be 100% situational. Duh. I think the ideal scenario would be for Zach to get to the 4th or 5th tied or with a lead and hand it over to Shores to get to the 8th or 9th with a lead and let Ant finish close it out. 99% chance is doesn’t go that perfectly.

Cowan is capable of dominating like he was the 1st part of the season. But we know how he’s struggled lately. And with the wind blowing out, he could look like he’s on and cruising, then a 2 out weakly hit bleeding-eye single, a HBP, then he leaves a changeup up up and all of a sudden we go from tied at no score to down 3-0. In a matter of like 5 minutes. That can happen with any pitcher, but Zack’s more prone because his stuff depends so much on having great command. It’s not good enough to get away with mistakes, very little room for error.

And it can happen in the 4th or the 1st. So I almost feel like Jay has to have a couple of guys warming up in the pen the entire game. Like Williams or Noot have to be ready to come in to face the 4th batter if necessary. And the 2 guys warming will change with more data, what inning it is, whether we’re up or down, and by how much. But I don’t think Jay can ever just think “oh, Cowan’s cruising, we’ll just wait till he gets in trouble to get somebody up.” Which, of course, he’d never do.

None of this earth shattering insight. I’ve just got the nervous, pre-game poots and posts.

tldr;—Who comes in after Cowan will depend on the situation, I bet Jay has played out just about every situation possible, and I think it will be really interesting to see who he uses and when, and if he honestly explains his thinking after the game if we win.