Craig Stammen says first game as manager was “humbling”
Nick Pivetta #27 of the San Diego Padres talks with pitching coach Ruben Niebla #57 in the second inning against the Detroit Tigers on opening day at Petco Park on March 26, 2026 in San Diego, CA. But what else is there to be said about a game devoid of suspense and that did nothing to abate fears that the Padres’ starting pitching will be its Achilles.
) talks about Nick Pivetta allowing four runs in the first inning and six runs over his entire three-inning outing in yesterday’s season-opening 8-2 loss to the Detroit Tigers.Pivetta, far and away the Padres’ best pitcher in 2025 and being counted on to be that good again, spoke this spring about his The six runs were the most he has allowed in 31 starts for the Padres that were not at Coors Field. The seven hits were tied for the second most. His three walks in the first inning would have tied for the third most he issued in a game last season. Basically, he had nothing yesterday. And that was exacerbated by his not commanding his two best pitches, his fastball and curveball. In the first inning, when the Tigers both waited out Pivetta and ambushed him, three of his 18 four-seam fastballs were in the strike zone. For the game, he got one called strike and four misses on 33 four-seamers. That is a lower percentage than in any game last season. He got a called strike or a miss on 30.7% of his four-seamers in 2025. “Nick didn’t pitch the way he normally pitches,” shortstop Xander Bogaerts said. “I don’t know. He might not have the feel for his pitches because he wasn’t close to being as sharp as he normally is, and that kind of sucked a little bit for him, because he normally commands all of his pitches pretty well. But today he couldn’t go to any one of his pitches. They were all just very unlike him. But he’ll bounce back. I mean, he’s Nick.”“I would love that game back,” Pivetta said. “But that’s not reality. That’s not how the world works. Just look to capitalize on a couple days off that I have here, get a good bullpen sesh, get back to who I am.”Bogaerts has been pretty bad in the first half of each of his seasons with the Padres. you’re playing on the backfield or something. It’s tough, especially getting later on in my career. It is a little more tough because maybe you played so many spring training games. I don’t know what it is. “I just feel WBC, I grinded. I don’t think my swing was where I wanted it to be then. But you had to play, and you had to give it what you had at that point. Spring training is a good time to work on it. But I think my bat path might be in a good position right now, and I’m happy with it.”That was because the Padres hardly took any time at all to make outs. Skubal, winner of the past two American League Cy Young awards, allowed successive one-out singles to Bogaerts and Manny Machado in the first inning. The left-hander then retired 15 straight batters in just 46 pitches. It was not necessarily ineptitude that accounted for the Padres seeing just 74 pitches from Skubal in his six innings. “He’s coming aggressive,” Ramón Laureano said. “And he’s the best in the game. So if he’s going to beat you, he’s going to beat you with the best thing he has.” Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish which is Skubal’s best pitch. His changeup is his nastiest one, and the Padres missed nine of the 11 times they swung at it yesterday. But his two fastballs average better than 97 mph, and they move. Skubal threw his four-seamer and sinker 43 times yesterday, including on the first pitch to 16 of the 22 batters he faced. “We had a game plan, and it was to be aggressive, clearly,” Stammen said. “A good pitcher is gonna, he’s gonna pitch the way he pitches, and we just had to figure out a way to get on the fastball. He pitched good enough where his fastball was beating us a little bit, and he has the nasty changeup that has kind of stifled the league for the last few years. A great pitcher, a good test for us on opening day. And, you know, he proved who he was.” It was a tough way for Padres hitters to begin the season. And it won’t be the last upper-tier starter they face in the coming weeks. From lefty Framber Valdez tonight to their first-ever encounter with Paul Skenes in early April, the Padres will have to The Padres made it a point of emphasis to improve against left-handers this season after hitting .244 with a .691 OPS against lefties in 2025.That’s the simplest way to look at it. It seemed to catch some people by surprise that Darvish went on the restricted list on Wednesday. The specific way his forfeiting his 2026 salary was resolved was news. But this outcome was guaranteed for months, and the Padres have spent the $15 million they got back because of Darvish’s largesse. His officially going on the restricted list did not free up new payroll space. Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller yesterday addressed the uniqueness of Darvish’s decision to not just go on the injured list, rehab and collect his salary, and that is part of Jeff Sanders’ notebook . Preller also repeated what he has essentially been saying since news broke in January that Darvish planned to walk away from his contract. “This is something that we’ve been planning for and working towards throughout the whole offseason,” Preller said. “It’s not a surprise. I think ultimately, just kind of figuring out exactly what he wanted to do — what the right list to put him on, getting the right people involved to do that. That was really what the last six to eight weeks was about. But in terms of, like, the planning part of it, it doesn’t really change anything.” That doesn’t mean the Padres don’t have any money to spend at some point this season. But if you have been paying attention at all, you know the Padres don’t really have any money.There is hope internally that an ownership change, which could come as early as next month, will loosen the purse strings for Preller to address needs the way he has done during the past two seasons. As for free agent starting pitcher Lucas Giolito, who remains unsigned, the price would need to come down significantly. Even then, the most optimistic thing anyone with the Padres would say about the chance they could sign him is that it is “not zero.”And this is one positive that only a team that lost would talk about. But that doesn’t mean it won’t end up being significant. Ron Marinaccio , Bradgley Rodriguez , David Morgan and Wandy Peralta combined to cover the final six innings. And, not for nothing, Pivetta was able to finish off the top of the first inning by striking out Javier Baez, who was likely going to be his last batter. . Left-hander Kyle Hart was warm, and left-handed batter Kerry Carpenter was on deck with two of three batters after him also batting from the left side. “I think the hardest part about today’s decision making was who was going to pitch and how we were going to get through the game without pitching guys … we wanted to save,” Stammen said. “We ended up wanting to save Kyle Hart for tomorrow and the next day. Their lineup is predominantly left-handed, and we felt like if we saved him for the next two days, we had a better chance, we could be a little bit more aggressive with the bullpen if we had to be. We knew if Wandy just pitched one inning, he’d be good to go one of the next two days.” The Padres are off Sunday. That likely means there won’t be any hesitance by Stammen to use his higher-leverage relievers today and tomorrow. That wasn’t surprising, actually. Even though Stammen experimented quite a bit with his lineups in the spring, it appeared near the end that Tatis would be the choice to bat first against left-handed starters.) a couple weeks ago, it is only a bad thing if the Padres’ bottom of the order is as awful as it was the first four months of last season. Bogaerts batted second for just the fourth time with the Padres. The other three times were last season. Machado was third, where he has hit more than any spot in his career.“Just because this is the lineup on opening day doesn’t mean it’s going to be for 162,” Stammen said before the game. “We’re going to switch it up as we go.”So, a lot of people asked me this spring about the differences between Shildt and Stammen.But I also try to point out as often as I can that Shildt has won at least 90 games in all four full seasons he managed. Just 13 other managers have ever begun their career by doing that. Stammen may or may not turn out to be a winning manager. All he experienced yesterday was how helpless someone in his job can be. “Humbling, I guess,” he said of his first day. “You hope it goes well, but got off to bad start. Just the game of baseball, you know. But it was a lot of fun for me to be in the dugout and lead the guys and hopefully get back after it tomorrow.” There being fewer cringeworthy moments in press conferences is nice for me and my media brethren. But that really doesn’t matter. It should matter to fans, however, that Stammen is who he is, because his confidence, genuine empathy and relatability plays in the clubhouse.) about how the Padres plan to rest Manny Machado more in 2026. It takes someone entirely confident in his relationship with Machado to not only relay the message to Machado that he will be serving as designated hitter and/or getting more days off but to say a couple of the things Stammen said in that story.Now is a good time to remind you that while this newsletter is free, the resources expended to cover it are not.We write, on average, three Padres stories a day during the season and more than 100 over the course of the offseason. If you do the math, you’ll find that to be a bargain.Joe Musgrove played catch yesterday for the first time since he left his only spring training start on March 4. An update on Musgrove is in Sanders’ notebook and Gavin Sheets , have hit more in their first 51 games with the franchise. You may have noticed the new video boards affixed above the tower loft suites on either side of Petco Park. Check out what Tom Krasovic wrote ( Kevin McGonigle’s debut lived up to the hype. The Tigers’ 21-year-old third baseman, who was drafted 37th overall in 2023 and finished last season in Double-A, doubled in his first two at-bats and finished 4-for-5. He is just the sixth player since 1900 to have four hits in his first big-league game and the youngest to do it besides Ken Griffey Jr. and Delino DeShields in 1990.Fourth Padres suitor becomes publicNightmare start for Nick Pivetta, Padres in opening-day loss to TigersShortage of air traffic controllers triggers heavy delays at San Diego airportSDG&E trying to figure out what caused big power outage Thursday night Firefighters should take 1 or 2 minutes to prepare for a call. San Diego’s take 4, audit finds. Here’s what’s to blame. Firefighters should take 1 or 2 minutes to prepare for a call. San Diego’s take 4, audit finds. Here’s what’s to blame.
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