STAMMEN COMES TO RESCUE FOR ’MATES
If you had Craig Stammen in the NL Wild Card Series win-or-vacation pitching office pool, take a bow … then stand there as Pinocchio admires the size of your schnoz.
San Diego radio and Twitter screamed Garrett Richards on Friday leading into Game 3, in nearly one unified voice. They fiercely debated the mound merits of Tim Hill, Drew Pomeranz, Luis Patiño, Adrian Morejon and basically anyone not named Stammen.
The unexpected pick to hold the stubborn Cardinals at bay proved a smart, gutsy choice for rookie manager Jayce Tingler and the front office in a 4-0 series clincher that will send the Padres to an NLDS showdown with the Dodgers in Arlington, Texas.
“We banked on the man,” Tingler said. “This guy never missed a day of ‘COVID camp.’ He knows this mound well. He is one of the leaders of this clubhouse. There is a ton of belief in the man there. At the end of the day, we looked at numbers, we looked at other options and we just gave it to a trustworthy man.”
The Decision leading into The Game while chasing The Big Cake sparked The Nail Chewing among anxious Padres faithful.
Choosing Richards would have made sense, given his experience in the league. Until 2020, though, Richards had not pitched in the postseason despite all the miles on the tires. Stammen, meanwhile, appeared in six postseason games for the Nationals.
Others pined for super prospect MacKenzie Gore, in one of those secret-weapon types of moves. Gore? Was the Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy left off the Padres postseason pool?
There was virtually no chance the Padres would trot out a 21-year-old yet to sniff the big leagues, even if they could, against a veteran lineup like the Cardinals — let alone in an elimination game. Fan enthusiasm was understandable, but hardly rooted
in reality. Those things happen in Disney movies, not when playoff life 14 years in the making rests in the balance.
Gore’s time is coming. In April.
Stammen’s time was now. “I was fired up to get this start,” he said.
Digging underneath emotions and perceptions revealed a remarkable trendline: In September, Stammen struck out 10 with no walks and, impressions be damned, posted a 1.80 ERA for the final month of the season. He gave up two earned runs in nine appearances for the month, including none in a pair of run-ins with the Dodgers.
Since Aug. 15, Stammen suffered through one ragged outing, allowing four earned runs versus Seattle on Aug. 27.
Many remember each meltdown, but there truly were only three this season. Much of Stammen’s trouble came on soft contact that mushroomed into more. Fact check for those who thought he surrendered a bunch of
home runs this season: He allowed two, with none since Aug. 12.
Many conveniently flushed all those innings Stammen gobbled up as the Padres bubble-wrapped other arms a season ago, mopping his brow inning after inning to buoy the bigger picture.
He’s used to rolling up his sleeves. A lot.
Stammen raced in front Friday against the Cardinals with first-pitch strikes to five of the six batters he faced. The one he proceeded gingerly on, slugger Paul Goldschmidt, made sense. He’d hit .294 in 17 career at-bats against the Padres’ righthanded starter.
In 21 pitches, Stammen delivered 14 for strikes. The lone hit was an ultimately harmless, soft liner to short right field off the bat of Dylan Carlson. Lifting him with two outs in the second, with no dents or scratch, allowed the Padres to match up lefty sidewinder Hill with lefthanded Matt Carpenter.
The chess game, at least
out of the gate, worked.
“They’re in a tough spot,” Carpenter said during a pregame Zoom call Friday. “Jumping all over these relievers early in the game is going to be the key for us.”
There were cases to made for opting for another arm instead of Stammen. His 5.63 ERA this season was the worst of his career, which began in 2009. Most of that came early, though, rather than in the meaningful stretch run.
Stammen led baseball relievers in games featuring high-leverage situations a season ago. He knows the stress-inducing drill, because he’s been through it more than almost anyone in recent seasons. Sure, his last start was in August 2010 with the Nationals — but he’s a been there, done that kind of guy.
“It couldn’t have worked out better to get my next start in the postseason,” Stammen said.
If you trust how the Padres reshaped this clubhouse into a playoff thorn, consider they extended the 36-year-old
through at least next year with a club option for 2022. They saw something they thought was worth $4 million per season.
Seeds of trust between Stammen and Tingler trace back to before the season … and before the pitcher was guaranteed a spot in the clubhouse. On a roster with Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Eric Hosmer, Kirby Yates and more, Tingler carved out time to call Stammen and chew on the possibility of staying with the team while he remained a free agent in limbo.
“I wasn’t even on the team yet,” Stammen said at the time. “… It was important to me that he reached out.”
On Friday, Tingler reached out when it mattered most — with a season on the line.
Pulling the trigger on Stammen, instead of Richards or Hill or one of the other options — even with the surely final say of GM A.J. Preller and his lieutenants — will be part of Tingler’s permanent résumé for a rookie lap under the microscope.
In sum, they both needed to perform in Game 3.
“If that (start) goes haywire and they get some more runs, we may be spinning,” Tingler said.
The bullpen entrance Friday resembled a revolving door at Macy’s, again. The group, as taxed as California itself.
The Padres set a franchise postseason record by using eight pitchers in Game 1, then breaking that a day later with nine in Game 2. Stammen and Tingler knew they needed just enough leash to plant some doubt in the Cardinals dugout and buy time for Padres bats to crank up.
The tone-setter no one out outside of the Petco Park front offices expected lit the fuse to eliminate the last of four teams from the NL Central.
Take a bow of your own, Craig Stammen — and pack your bags. You’re headed to Texas.