Padres manager is ‘not happy’; he also is stubbornly batting some struggling players up high; Padres hope Walker Buehler’s rest gets him back on track
Craig Stammen walked into his hotel room around midnight Friday after the Padres’ extra-inning loss to the Royals. He woke up refreshed and spent time with his family before heading back to Kauffman Stadium.
He had strong words for his players during their daily hitters meeting yesterday morning. Some of them shared later that there was no doubt how he felt about the inconsistency of the at-bats and that they knew where he was coming from. It didn’t exactly manifest in a festival of hits in a 6-1 loss to the Royals a few hours later. That is how it goes sometimes.
A rant by the manager doesn’t mean Manny Machado won’t ground into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded. But we are starting here today because there seems to be a widespread perception that Stammen does not take losses hard enough.
Based on the abundance of emails I receive on the subject and what I see and hear about on social media, there is among the faithful a fair amount of frustration about how the Padres manager comes across in the televised portion of his postgame media scrums. He is friendly. He smiles at least a little on almost every occasion.
He often laughs and talks about the sun coming up the next day and the privilege of being in the big leagues. It seems to be largely ignored that Stammen is also frequently more critical of his team’s play and more forthcoming about his thoughts and his own missteps than any recent Padres manager.
And whatever messaging disconnect there might be or however understandable it is that some fans want a manager who looks as ticked off as they feel, Stammen is not changing the way he communicates publicly. He has explained in the past that he sees one the most important aspects of his job to be remaining even. His primary audience is his players and his staff. That is who he is at his core.
He prioritizes things beyond baseball. And he has been through enough major league seasons to know how they can turn.
“We’ve seen it from many other teams in the league already that it can change fast,” he said yesterday. That doesn’t mean those who are less confident about his team are wrong. It doesn’t mean Stammen and his coaches and A.J. Preller ought not be held accountable for some things.
But that is an entirely different matter than Stammen not caring or not communicating to players the need to be better or working with his staff and players to affect change.
“I’m not happy,” he said yesterday. “We’re not where we want to be. That’s a fact. But we’re not out of it.
”Maybe we could spend more time second-guessing Stammen about important stuff. Like where he is putting his “best” hitters and where he is putting his best hitters. ) about the multiple missed opportunities all over the lineup yesterday, including a pair of double-play grounders with runners in scoring positions But the topic before the game was how Andujar hit three doubles on Friday night, the second time in four games he did so.
“He’s one of those guys that when he gets hot, he stays hot and can carry the offense for a little bit,” Stammen said. “The at-bat he had in extra innings with the guy on second, battling pitches — you could tell he was trying to get it to the opposite field to get the runner to third. He got rewarded for a team at-bat right there. Very selfless at-bat.
He got a ball down the line and got another double. Those are the type of at-bats we need consistently throughout the game to help us go where we need to go. ” It might seem odd then, that Andujar was batting eighth again, two spots behind Ty France, whose game-tying home run in the ninth inning on Friday was his 10th extra-base hit in his previous 66 at-bats. France was batting .318 with a 1.044 OPS in that span.
Meanwhile, Jackson Merrill continued to be in the No.2 spot in the order despite his .216 average and .619 OPS on the season and .240 average and .656 OPS in July. And Xander Bogaerts was still batting third while hitting .224 with a .645 OPS overall and .163 average and .539 OPS in July.
The Padres stopped playing the pregame video montage at Petco Park in which Stammen is heard saying, essentially, that the Padres will go as Fernando Tatis Jr., Machado, Bogaerts and Merrill go. So there is no indication Merrill or Bogaerts will move down after Merrill went 0-for-4 and Bogaerts 0-for-3 with a walk yesterday.
“We’ve got our four big boys at the top, and we want to get those guys going,” Stammen said before the game. “If we get those guys going, then the rest of the guys will take hold. … We have to. That’s a big piece of it.
For us to be the team we want to be, have a chance to make the playoffs and make a run, those guys are going to have to carry us. And they will carry us. That’s why they’re at the top. ” It also turns out that Stammen, who varied his lineup frequently early in the season, has been given pause by the results.
“Anytime we’ve had guys get hot and then moved them up, it’s cooled them off really quickly,” he said. “So we’re trying not to cool them off. ” Andujar has actually been the exception to that rule. He is batting .280/.308/.490 in the 2-3-4 holes and is batting .277/.317/.429 when in the sixth, seventh or eighth spots.
France is batting .172/.264/.266 when hitting second, third or fourth and is hitting .281/.322/.581 when down in the 6-7-8 spots.
“Those guys getting on base at the bottom of the order puts people on base for the top of the order,” Stammen said. “The more guys we have on base when Fernando comes to the plate, the better off we are. ”Walker Buehler threw in the bullpen yesterday in advance of a start tomorrow or Tuesday in Atlanta. When he takes the mound against the Braves, it will have been at least nine days since his last start.
The Padres hope the rest served a purpose for Buehler, who has allowed 20 runs in his past three starts, most in any three-game stretch in a career that has spanned 165 starts.
“You can never underestimate what a little breather does for an older player with a lot of miles on his tires, what a little bit of a breather does for him,” Stammen said. “… Maybe that little breather is what he needed to get back on track and pitch the way he was pitching.
” Buehler, who before this run in July had a 1.71 ERA over five starts in June, was not so keen to acknowledge the down time was significant.
“I don’t know,” he said. “There’s general fatigue of the season. I’ve physically felt pretty fine the past three. ” Buehler, who turns 32 on July 28, did acknowledge the toll of the recent stretch, which saw the Padres play 17 games in 17 days leading up to the All-Star break.
His past three starts were all made on four-days’ rest. Just four of his first 16 starts were made on four days’ rest. Tidbits Among players with at least 150 career plate appearances against the Royals, France’s 1.087 OPS ranks third all-time behind Yordan Alvarez and Hall of Famer Dick Allen . France began yesterday at 1.065 and with two doubles and a walk passed Alex Rodriguez and Mike Trout on the all-time list.
Tatis hit his sixth home run and stole his 24th base of the season yesterday. The stolen base was the 148th of his career, which moved him into a tie with Bip Roberts for fourth most in Padres history. The home run was Tatis’ 158th, which moved him out of a tie with Phil Nevin for fourth most in franchise history.
Machado’s heater is turning into a cooler. He was 0-for-3 with a walk yesterday and is 0-for-7 with two walks in the two games here. His season batting average, which was above .200 for two games, has fallen to .199, and his OPS has fallen to .698. Freddy Fermin got a partial standing ovation when he went to the plate for the first time yesterday.
He played for the Royals from 2022 until being traded at the deadline last season. Yesterday was Fermin’s first start since coming off the injured list . He was 1-for-3 with a double and is 4-for-13 with three doubles in his past four starts. Andujar grounded into two double plays yesterday.
He leads the Padres with 20 doubles and has grounded into a team-high 12 double plays. The Padres have grounded into three double plays in consecutive games for the first time since Aug. 30 and 31, 2023. All right, that’s it for me. Early game today .
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