NL DIVISION SERIES: PADRES VS BREWERS

October 2, 2026

Craig Stammen

American Family Field

San Diego Padres

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Can you talk about the decision to go with Robbie Ray and the match-ups you expect him to take down, how long you might stick with him?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Yeah, Robbie has been -- we got him at the trade deadline. We saw him firsthand pitching against us. He was a tough out. Just trust his veteran presence, experience pitching the playoffs.

I think he's going to do well against this lineup. As far as how far he goes or how long, he'll determine a lot of that, how well he pitches. And we know with Robbie, he can be erratic at times. If he's throwing strikes I feel good about Robbie being in there.

Q. How much does the experience on your roster, some of your hitters especially, match up against the younger players on the Brewers roster? How much will age and experience factor into this series, do you think?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Hopefully experience matters to us. They've got a great team. They've won a lot more games than we did this year. They play great baseball. They bring an element of speed and athleticism that is probably the most of any roster in the Big Leagues.

So lack of experience or lack of time in the Big Leagues, I don't think it's going to matter. Their talent speaks for itself and their ability to win games speaks for itself.

Q. Obviously you had some options as far as what you could do pitching-wise, starting pitching-wise, Game 1 tomorrow. What role do you see Walker potentially playing in this series and moving forward?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Walker will play a big role in this series at some point. I don't know when that is. But he's got such a playoff pedigree that it will be hard for us to leave him out and not give him a chance to put his mark on the series.

Q. There were some ups and downs for Ray and Mize after the deadline, but just having them and being able to stabilize your rotation at the deadline when you did after (indiscernible), how big was that to stabilize things?

CRAIG STAMMEN: I think you're right, you look at the overall numbers and you think, oh, they didn't pitch that good. But they had very good games in between there that it did, it stabilized our rotation.

We were able to know who was starting the next day for every game the rest of the season. And I think there's something to be said about that. The starting pitcher is definitely momentum for the next game.

And knowing that anybody that we threw out there, we were capable of winning that game I think gave our position player group and the rest of the team a great feeling goings in the next day.

Robbie and Casey had great careers and great seasons this year. They didn't pitch their best with us, but they also pitched some games that were pretty darned good and got us some big wins.

Q. Fernando talked about struggles making him a better player. Do you think we're seeing it in the first round of the playoffs, the way he played with that reckless abandonment?

CRAIG STAMMEN: I think his first playoff series was a carry-on what he's been doing the second half of the season and last three-quarters of the season. He definitely had to dig deep and find out who he really is as a baseball player, who he really wanted to be and kind of block out the outside noise, honestly. He did a very good job of that.

Our coaches did a very good job of rallying behind him and pumping him up and making him feel comfortable with what he was about to go through with hitting-mechanics changes or just an identity change a little bit.

Once he got on board with being I'm going to be a great baseball player, not just a great hitter or great home run hitter or a great base stealer, I'm just going to be a great baseball player, I think he felt like that feeling he had when he was 10 years old when he was invincible, that he could be the same player in the Major League Baseball.

And we've seen a lot of glimpse of that over the back half of the season. And we saw a lot in the two games in the Wild Card series.

Q. You mentioned Ray's experience. How do you hope that translates onto the mound in Game 1?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Experience is your great teacher. He's been in that atmosphere before. He's been in road parks before when the crowd is going crazy. And he's got a slow heartbeat. He's someone you look at every single day. He's the same guy every single day, the same look on his face, the same competitiveness.

I've been against Robbie for a long time. I've seen how competitive he is. I can see how he can bounce back from adversity really well. So those are all really good traits to have when you're going into a postseason road game.

Q. We have seen how much a home run can mean in the postseason when you're facing a lot of really good pitchers, three for you guys in the first game, Gavin's shot and then the second one. Does the ability to get runs with one swing of the bat matter more in the postseason than it does in the regular season?

CRAIG STAMMEN: I think it matters the same. Every game is its own entity in the postseason. So it's a little bit more magnified. But in the regular season you want to hit home runs just as often as you want to hit them in the postseason. We had a few big ones in the Chicago series, and hopefully that bodes well in this series too.

Q. What makes your bullpen as good as it's been, and what do you think of the Brewers' bullpen? I'm wondering, when you have a series with two bullpens this strong, how does that impact the approach? I imagine it puts getting early leads to a premium.

CRAIG STAMMEN: I think both teams are probably trying to play the same game -- get out to an early lead and let the bullpen handle it the rest of the way.

I think both bullpen have a lot of flexibility in who they can use -- right- and left-handed pitchers, pitchers that get both-handedness hitters out, and guys that can go multiple innings. I think you add all those things up, that's what makes a great bullpen.

They have a great one from the last guy to the first guy that's how we feel about our bullpen too. It will be a tough series. It will probably be a lot of close games because of that.

Q. There's not really someone like Misiorowski but the fact that you guys have done so much better against better pitchers, guys with better stuff, how much confidence -- and you're able to keep that going for so long -- how much more confidence would you have with your guys going into this game versus, like, three months ago?

CRAIG STAMMEN: We've faced them back, I believe it was in May when we faced them the last time. And he was on a roll then. And he was a tough task that day. He's going to be a tough task tomorrow also.

So although it's better when we're feeling good, that doesn't change once you get in the batter's box and you're facing a guy like him. It's going to be tough.

Q. How much did what Robbie did in his last start -- I know it was only three and a third -- but he kept pounding the strike zone, it was against the Dodgers. How much did that show you guys or weigh into this decision?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Yeah, I think definitely it didn't hurt him as far as that goes. You face an offense that's very patient, much like the Brewers, and he's able to throw strikes and get us into the game in a good spot where we could go to our bullpen.

The things the Dodgers did against them they fought a bunch of pitches off and raised his pitch count up.

It'll be similar type of game he's going to have to throw strikes. I trust that he will. He's a veteran of Major League Baseball, and he's a professional out-getter. And I feel good about Robbie being in this position.

Q. Michael would be on regular rest on Sunday. Will he be Game 2?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Yes, Michael will be Game 2.

Q. And the Brewers ranked second in the league in scoring runs, tied for second to last for home runs. How do you think they got to that, to be able to score so many runs without having that much home run power?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Yeah, they put a lot of pressure on you. They've built a team that's full of speed and athleticism. They run the bases extremely hard. They steal a lot of bases. They use the bunt game. They hit behind runners. They use the opposite field really well. And they just compete for nine innings. They don't let up at all.

So all those factors together probably make up for their lack of home runs that they've hit this year, but they know how to score runs. Any way you can score runs, score runs, it doesn't really matter.

The home run stuff may get blown out of proportion. They're a really good team and they score a lot of runs. Our pitchers will have to be on it. Our defense will have to be on it this series.

Q. Petco Park is a great environment and that was talked a lot about in the earlier part of this week. I think they're expecting this to be a really good environment here in Milwaukee for your team. What do you view as the overall keys to dealing with a hostile environment that this will probably be like?

CRAIG STAMMEN: I think one is to embrace it and enjoy it a little bit. How often do you get to be personally put in situations like this where you're on the road and the underdog and the crowd's going crazy and it's everybody against you?

You try to take that mentality, use it to your advantage and then play the game the way you've always played, and then can't wait to get back home and experience it for ourselves with our fans on our side.

Q. As a pitcher who didn't throw 103 miles an hour, what do you make of this series with Misiorowski and Miller, guys who can do that?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Yeah, it's remarkable what they're able to do physically. And then for Misiorowski to be a starting pitcher doing it and to be as consistent as he's been this whole year -- and Mason, we talked about that too, how consistent he's been being able to do that almost every outing he's had, bringing that kind of velocity.

It's the new age of baseball. It's what every little kid is watching and looking up to and hoping they can throw 100 miles an hour one day because it's cool. It's pretty cool when they can throw that hard and make hitters look as silly as they make them.

The best thing about the postseason is the best players get to play, and those are two of the best pitchers in our game.

Q. That was my question, but in the theme of pitching I'll stay on the topic. How important do you think both bullpens being so successful all year is going to have an impact in this series?

CRAIG STAMMEN: You're right. I think both teams have relied on their bullpen throughout the year to get to this point. Obviously the postseason is a little bit different than the 162 marathon that you go through where you're trying to keep everybody healthy, keep them fresh, but also keep them sharp at the same time.

In the postseason, every manager is going to be a little more aggressive with their bullpen. It's nice to be aggressive when you know you have a good bullpen. I'm sure Murph feels the same way that I do about ours.

Q. You mentioned the Brewers offense. What do you like about your offense? And specifically with some of your star hitters, how important is it for them to kind of take center stage in this series to kind of take over the series offensively?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Yeah, I like our offense a lot. I like how we stick to a game plan. We're hitting with the idea of 1 through 9 all on the same page and hitting together. It's not a bunch of individuals trying to hit together and beat a starting pitcher or relief corps. I think they're locked in playing that team style of baseball.

How we've played offense here this second half of the season has been a lot about how the clubhouse has come together, how those position players have banded together and decided we're going to do this together no matter what our individual offensive seasons look like.

And I just think that mentality has improved our offense and given us a lot of good success here at the end of the season.

Q. Obviously when a team starts poorly, there can be a lot of stress especially for a rookie manager. How did you weather that particular stretch, and how do you feel you've evolved as a manager during the year?

CRAIG STAMMEN: You know, we got off to an okay start. I mean, the very beginning wasn't great. Then we won like eight in a row. That made me feel really good about our team that we had that in us, that we could go on a run where we could just win a lot of games.

And then we had the struggles throughout May with the offense, and June, and then we kicked it in gear in July.

I think having played with a lot of the guys on the team, I felt very comfortable believing in them. I didn't have a reason to doubt them. And they didn't have a reason to doubt themselves, and they, along with that, hopefully didn't doubt me along the way. We stuck with it together. We stayed positive, optimistic. We believed in a better future and we put the work in to try to change what was going on.

It sounds very simple, but that's kind of what we did. And all the things that we hoped would happen, happened in the second half.

Q. You mentioned Murph. How well do you know Murph? Both of you didn't take traditional paths to this job. Is he someone you talked to before or shortly after you took the job?

CRAIG STAMMEN: I don't know him super well. I've met him a few times and know his story. Know he was with the Padres. A.J. talks about him often, the type of person that he is.

He's done a great job as the Brewers manager. And I respect him a ton for what he's done in his baseball career. He's a baseball guy, and he's going to be around this game for a long time.

He's got a great team. And he manages them really well. He's perfect for that group. They'll be a tough out.