NL DIVISION SERIES: PADRES VS BREWERS

October 6, 2026

Craig Stammen

Petco Park

San Diego Padres

Pregame 3 Press Conference

Q. How do you balance the elimination game and the finality of what that could be and keeping guys loose and free and the combination that got you here? How is that going to be a balance for you?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Definitely it's tough to mentally handle that, what could happen and what we want to happen. So I think be as consistent as possible, try to show up in the same way, try to go about the process of winning the game in the same way, and also encourage these guys along the way and tell them how much we believe in them. That's going to be my strategy.

Q. Tomorrow, if there's a tomorrow, a starter, how will you decide that? Do you have that decision now?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Decision not now. We'll see how today's game goes, see which pitchers we use, and then decide what our best course of action is for tomorrow.

Q. Craig, Jackson up to the No. 2 spot. You moved the lineup around a fair amount this season. What do you like about that today?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Jackson is one of our best hitters. I feel like he's a chess piece in our lineup that we can move around and make the Brewers think differently about how they're deploying their bullpen or deploying their starters and go from there.

Believe in Jackson. He can hit anywhere in the lineup. We've been very hot as a team with him hitting in the 5 hole. Moved him up in the 4 hole for that one game against Arizona bullpen game. See what he looks like in the 2 hole, and maybe these guys catch fire in a little different way here to keep us going to the playoffs.

Q. I know you've been high on Ethan since he came up, but is hitting him fifth in a game like this one -- he clearly had to show you a lot with his approach at the plate --

CRAIG STAMMEN: He's been very hot here of late, the way he's been swinging the bat. A lot of good at-bats, even in the playoffs and in some big games in L.A. at the end of the season and big games in Arizona.

I feel like he's comfortable, a little bit more comfortable than he was at the beginning when he first came up. Since he's gotten that first hit, the weight has been lifted off his shoulders, and he's been the Ethan Salas we thought was going to be here the whole time.

Q. For a potential tomorrow, are there plans and you're waiting to see, or is it just today is all hands on deck and you figure it out?

CRAIG STAMMEN: It's more all hands on deck today and see which hands we have left for tomorrow.

Q. Just to go back to Ethan, Nick's numbers with him behind the plate have been really good so far. What have you seen from that pairing that has worked so well?

CRAIG STAMMEN: I think they're comfortable with each other. Nick likes throwing to Ethan, and he's got a good handle on what Nick likes to throw in those situations. They've been comfortable since that rehab start. Back in El Paso they worked well together that day, and they've both felt comfortable going forward.

They've worked really well together. Nick has had a lot of success since he's come back from the injury list, and Ethan is a part of that.

Q. Campusano injured going into Game 2. What's his status going into Game 3?

CRAIG STAMMEN: He's good to go. He's over that. It was just a bruise; that was a day game after a night game that just didn't heal as quickly as he thought, he probably forgot about it overnight and then woke up and swung a bat, and was like, oh, that doesn't feel as good.

But as we saw, he played in the game, was just fine. The workout yesterday was good to go also.

Q. Given the circumstances, broadly speaking, how do you want your players to approach a night like this?

CRAIG STAMMEN: I want them to enjoy it as much as possible. You don't have that many opportunities where you get to play in the playoffs at home in San Diego. It's quite an electric atmosphere that we experienced back in the Wild Card series, and hopefully we're going to get to experience it again today.

Q. You kind of led me into that question. There's been so much made about home-field advantage, great atmosphere Milwaukee, obviously a great atmosphere here. How much do you personally think home-field advantage makes a difference?

CRAIG STAMMEN: It definitely makes a little bit of difference. You've got to be able to handle. You've got to be tough to be able to handle a tough environment. The crowd noise is definitely a factor. You've got to somehow be able to quiet your mind and execute the same way you have the entire season.

It's also an adrenaline spike, and how everybody handles that adrenaline spike is a little bit different.

Q. This is obviously a high-pressure game for your team. Was there a moment or what was the moment this season where you really began to appreciate the perseverance and determination of this ball club?

CRAIG STAMMEN: I think I saw it really early in the season. We didn't get off to a great start. Can't remember what our exact record was, like 1-4 to start the season. We're heading into Boston, and we played a great series there. After that, we kind of -- I think we won eight in a row sometime after that on the road.

So I felt like we showed some toughness. We typically haven't been a very good cold weather-playing team. We played some cold weather during that road trip and played really good and got ourselves in a good position and got off to a good start in the season.

I think they showed that from the beginning, and we just had a rough couple months there in the middle, and they were constantly working and trying to get out of that the whole season. They were never giving up. Even if they weren't hitting good, we were still trying to find ways to win games. So I feel really good about the attitude of our team.

Q. Fourth crack at Dustin May this year. We don't get to say that very often these days. What can you take away from the first three that can maybe be applied here tonight?

CRAIG STAMMEN: He's been tough on us. That's probably the reason they're throwing him in Game 3 against us. The good thing is we've faced him, we know what he's got, and we get another chance to compete and see what we've got against him.

Q. Realistically, when you look at Pivetta's outings -- I think this is his sixth start -- the most he's gone is five innings. He went 3 1/3. You pulled him out early in the Cubs series. What do you realistically think about him tonight? Do you have a bullpen plan that's already mapped out, or do you do it by feel?

CRAIG STAMMEN: I think with Nick specifically, him coming off the injury, we didn't build him up on rehab starts to be able to handle a full workload. It was kind of like hoping to build that workload as we went.

From what we've seen from him, the shorter-burst outings he's done really well in, and we've seen his -- maybe a slight drop-off, and we just want to get him out of the game before that drop-off happens, and I think especially in the playoffs. You'd rather take a pitcher out one batter too early than one batter too late.

Then as far as the bullpen playing goes, yeah, there's a bullpen playing after him. The hope is Nick goes as far as he can go with a full pitch count, and then we bring in our normal 7, 8, 9. There's always contingency plans, and we talk about those before the game and come up with what we think is our best course of action.

Q. So he's on a pitch count? What's the pitch count?

CRAIG STAMMEN: I think every pitcher is on a pitch count. They're not going to throw a thousand pitches, so there is a pitch count, but it's more based on how well he's doing in the game than it is pitch count.

Q. I would like to know how is Mason Miller doing, and what kind of words you had with him after the devastating game last Sunday?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Mason is doing great, and the only thing I said to him is how awesome he is and how proud I am of how he competed in that outing without his best stuff. He knows there's no one coming behind him to bail him out. That's like any other reliever, any other pitcher on our pitching staff. He knows that, and he competed his tail off and did the best he can. Sometimes it goes your way, and sometimes it doesn't.

For the most part of this year, it's gone his way, it's gone our way. One game doesn't determine his failure or his success as a person or as a player.

Q. All hands on deck, does that include Michael King?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Yes.

Q. He'll be in the bullpen?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Yes.