05-16-2022, 07:32 AM
Crucial back to back sweeps to make up (in part) for dropping a series in Seattle. As someone who is always critical of coaching decisions, I must tip my cap to Coach Esquer. He has two veteran arms in Williams and Mathews that are absolutely dealing week in and week out. The adjustment he made to Mathews' role (as a band-aid for a struggling bullpen) completely turned the season around. This weekend was a great example of the evolution of the game plan. In Seattle, Mathews was called upon early in game 3, to get the game back on track, which he did. However, using him early left a few outs for the rest of the bullpen to get and that turned sour fast. Yesterday he let the game play out knowing he could get about 4 innings out of Mathews. Rather than using him to get out of a messy 2nd inning, he waited. Other arms stepped up to steady to game. All of the sudden Mathews is in the game in the 6th and despite a 3 run deficit, it sure felt like Stanford was in a great position to win that game. Credit to the bats for giving this team plenty of chances. Credit to Mathews for getting outs whenever called upon. Credit to Esquer for taking a non traditional route to finding ways to win games!