NL DIVISION SERIES: PADRES VS BREWERS

October 5, 2026

Craig Stammen

Petco Park

San Diego Padres

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Literal must-win games here. What can you say about the challenges ahead but also the challenges of the Padres that might make it achievable for you guys?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Yeah, we've been resilient all year. We've had our backs against the wall several times. Players individually have had their backs against the wall. For us, it's just another day in Padres land.

But it's an exciting challenge. It will be a tough challenge. Obviously the cliche of taking it one day at a time, one game at a time, but really it's one pitch at a time, one inning at a time, and being at our best as long as we can be at our best.

Q. There's a lot of talk about Mason Miller possibly tipping his pitches last night. I'm not sure if you've seen any of that video, but do you believe that that's what happened?

CRAIG STAMMEN: We've got a crew of people that are dedicated to that every single day. That is their sole job. We're well aware of what's going on with our pitchers, well aware of what's going on with the Brewers pitchers and how they do things. It's part of our daily acumen.

The Internet can go crazy and take things farther than they need to go. We feel good about our process within that situation.

Q. Dustin May, a lot of history with this team. How do you think that matchup sets up for you guys?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Yeah, tough matchup. Dustin's pitched good against us several times, dating back to his days with the Dodgers. We have to be on our A game against him. The good thing is we've faced him a few times, and the more you face a guy that's got good stuff, the better chance our hitters are going to have.

Q. What's the game plan for Walker, when he might pitch, and how much is that dependent on today?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Walker will be available for the next game and the rest of the series.

Q. Tatis had a real big first game. What have you seen from his at-bats in the game since then in the postseason given he's so important to what you guys do on offense?

CRAIG STAMMEN: He hasn't been who he was that first game, but that's not how baseball works. It's hard to be that type of person every single game. I know he's putting a lot of pressure on himself to be the catalyst for our team, and the other team is pitching him in that way too. They're pitching him very carefully, and they're putting their best pitchers on him every single at-bat.

That's what postseason baseball is all about. I feel good about our chances. The more games we play, the more we'll see the Fernando of Game 1.

Q. I know it was different circumstances, different situation, but having swept the Brewers back in August, does that give you any confidence you can take three in a row over these guys?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Yeah, there's confidence, a lot of confidence in how we've played at the end of the season, and playing the Brewers in that little time period was a part of that.

They're a tough team. We've seen that in Milwaukee, but we also know that we've played them very tight. Both of those games could have went either way. They came out on the other end. We just hope the bounces kind of go our way. We play our game and make a few adjustments and come out on the good end of things.

Q. Mason in three of his last four appearances has given up earned runs. Morejon the other day gives up that home run and that gives up the lead. I imagine you're going to say there's no level of concern there. Why are you confident that those guys will be able to produce and get the job done for you for the rest of the postseason that you have?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Because they're really good pitchers. Over the course of time, they don't give up very many runs. Hopefully this is a blip on the radar, but we definitely trust them and we're going to keep going to them in the high-leverage spots.

Q. The decision to remove Salas and go with Sheets at DH, I don't know if you addressed that. What was the reasoning behind that?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Campy, the ball that we challenged that ended up being a foul ball that was a hit by a pitch and ended up being off the bat and hit his hand, his hand was just a little sore coming into the clubhouse yesterday and wasn't feeling that good swinging the bat, needed to give it a little bit more time, a little medicine to kick in.

So we're just being careful -- like he started the game, had to come out really quick. We didn't want to lose our DH putting in Salas. Obviously, we could have put Fermin in there also, but Salas would have been the first choice to come back in. We're just trying to protect that DH spot and not lose the DH early.

Q. It sounds like from the first answer you gave about Mason, you're reading between the lines, it sounds like you don't think he was pitch tipping? Just want to confirm that as your perspective on the game yesterday.

CRAIG STAMMEN: Like I said, we've got a lot of guys on top of it, and we're not really worried about it.

Q. Since you last spoke to us after the game, how much information do you gather on those two games that you didn't have when you talked to us and then you did a lot of thinking on those two games, I suspect. What was that information, generally speaking, and what did you learn from it? What did you learn about those two games now that you've had a little more time to sift through things?

CRAIG STAMMEN: We learned a lot about the Brewers. They're playing -- they learned a lot about us too. The cat-and-mouse game of a five-game series is trying to get better as the series goes and trying to find those little adjustments where we can take the advantage.

They've got a very good ball club, and it will be very tough. We've seen they don't quit either. It's two teams that don't quit and go after each other. A lot of high-level baseball in the game yesterday. A lot of defensive plays that were pretty remarkable. The last play in general had a lot of 80-grade things to it.

It's a great series to be a part of it, and it's awesome that we get to come back home and play two games at home. Home-field advantage in front of the fans that are going to be loud and showing that they're supporting us. We're looking forward to playing Game 3.

Q. Did you second-guess yourself on any moves?

CRAIG STAMMEN: I never second-guess myself. That's for everybody else to do (laughter).

Q. Tipping or not tipping, like Mason was not command-wise who we've seen at times this season. Have you diagnosed maybe what specifically went into that, why he wasn't maybe at his peak command?

CRAIG STAMMEN: I think we've seen some of that from Mason, and it mostly happens in the appearances where he goes more than one inning. I think that's definitely something strategy-wise that we were very comfortable with going into the game but something going forward that we may have to adjust as the playoffs go.

Q. Can you talk about the journey Pivetta's been on this year to get you to this point where he's on the mend, trying to defend the rest of the season? In August he walked off the field in Lake Elsinore like he couldn't pitch anymore.

CRAIG STAMMEN: You're right, it is a remarkable process, remarkable journey that he's had this entire season, going from our Opening Day starter to leaving the game with injury, elbow injury. Honestly, everybody probably thinking the worst, that he's done for the season.

Then him working his tail off, believing he can make it back, getting back, having a rough first rehab outing, but still believing in himself, still believing that he's okay. Then being strong enough in the mind to overcome some of that stuff and strong enough in the body too to come back and be one of our best pitchers here once he came back in the month of September.

Without Nick, would we have gotten to the playoffs? Without Nick, would we have had home-field advantage in the Wild Card? Probably not. He's a big part of us having a lot of success down the stretch.

Q. Not to beleaguer the point of this tipping pitches, Mason threw 40 pitches, 19 of them were balls. He walked four guys and let up one hit. Evidently, if he was tipping pitches, it didn't matter, did it? I mean, it doesn't have anything to do with the makeup of what happened in that game.

CRAIG STAMMEN: Yeah, you're right. The pitch-tipping stuff has been going on for a long time. We dealt with it a lot when I played, when the video cameras were in center field and they were getting the signs from the catchers. That's why there's PitchCom now. That's why people in the dugout are giving numbered signs and the catchers are looking like they got quarterbacks' offensive wristbands or whatever. All this is part of the game.

Any time someone like Mason, who's been as dominant as he has, ends up being not dominant in one outing, everyone is going to find any way to try to figure out why. We look at all that stuff as a coaching staff and as an organization to try to figure out why also and support him in that. I think we're ready to help him have a great outing the next time.

Q. It's not hard to figure out why. He threw 12 pitches in the eighth and had no problems. Then he came out in the ninth, and it looked like he was wearing down. There's a fatigue factor, especially on the at-bat to Sanchez, don't you think?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Definitely. I think going out for the second inning, he's learning how to do that, how to keep the same adrenaline in one inning and bring it to the second inning. We're constantly assessing that, constantly talking to Mason about it.

Q. One more. Where are you on -- you've used these guys a lot in the first two games. I don't even know, is Morejon even available yesterday after two innings the day before?

CRAIG STAMMEN: He was not available yesterday.

Q. So you used Matsui twice in two innings, is he available?

CRAIG STAMMEN: We don't have a game today. We'll find out, as we always do -- and you've been with us the whole year -- we see how they are coming into the stadium. We watch them play catch. Then we assess how we're going to use them that night for the game.

But every pitcher is different. Every pitcher can handle a different workload. Hopefully we've learned that throughout the season which guys can handle what and what situations they're best to be pitched in. Adrian's pitched a lot of two-inning games and been able to bounce back the next day. Unfortunately, this late in the season he wasn't able to do it yesterday. But I feel like all of our relievers are available and ready to go.

Q. You would use Mason on a more limited basis?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Possible. Up for discussion amongst the coaching staff.

Q. Craig, throughout the season, we talked to you about the concept of a starting pitcher being a stopper. Perhaps there's no better case of that when you're dealing with a win-or-go-home scenario. Just could you talk about the value of having Nick on the mound in a game like this, Game 3, when you're in that scenario, his personality in particular?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Nick has pitched the -- I think it was the playoff-clinching game in L.A. He pitched Game 2 in the Wild Card series, pitched Opening Day, pitched the first game of the Wild Card series last year, pitching Game 3 of the NLDS this year. So obviously we trust Nick in those big situations, and more often than not, he's come through in those big situations.

He's got a great personality. He's a team guy. He's all about the team. I know right now he doesn't want the season to end on his shoulders as the starting pitcher.

Q. You guys have done a really nice job with ABS in the postseason. Are there any conversations after the regular season ended about that, either strategy-wise or anything about that? Or was it just getting more and more used to it as the year's gone on, do you think?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Yeah, getting more and more used to it and probably more of a heightened focus. I think there's days during the season that as much as the game matters that day, the focus on the ABS isn't the number one thing, but we've seen throughout the four playoff games that we played that the ABS can play a critical role in momentum and in swinging certain at-bats and in swinging certain innings.

The guys have done a very good job staying disciplined and knowing the right times to challenge and challenging the right pitches.

Q. Craig, early on the games good start offensively, created opportunities throughout the game, at the end five runs, 20 left on, and probably some opportunities to maybe take the edge off for your relievers. What did you see from that standpoint? What does the offense have to do to capitalize on those situations starting tomorrow?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Yeah, you're right. It felt like for most of the first two games it felt like we were winning the battle but didn't win the war kind of thing. We were getting a lot of people on base, getting plenty of opportunities to score, had a lead in a lot of the innings and just weren't able to finish the deal.

I think it bodes well for the rest of the series. We're getting a lot of guys on base. Eventually we're going to punch through. We have too many good hitters that that's not going to happen. I feel really good about how we played offense leading up to this, and I feel like going forward we're going to stick with taking the at-bats that we've taken, be competitive in the box, and play Padres baseball.

Q. There's a version of this series in which every national outlet has a Ty France story out today. What's allowed him to go from a guy who was a long shot to make the roster to continuing to perform here, even in the postseason, against the top competition he's facing?

CRAIG STAMMEN: You're right. Ty's had a great season and a great postseason so far. He's been the one guy that's been able to punch through in those runners in scoring position, two-out situations. He's been doing that all year for us. Kind of flies under the radar for us as a team, just because we've seen him do it all year and we've come to expect it.

He's put his head down. We talked to him earlier in the season about earning every at-bat. One thing you can say about Ty, he's earned every at-bat he's gotten. He's earned the right to be hitting where he's hitting in the lineup for us, and without Ty, I don't know if we'd be here.