Craig Stammen’s postgame optimism rings hollow after Padres waste another opportunity

Craig Stammen has been doing what managers are supposed to do after losses. He stays calm. He’ll find some positives. But the Padres are hovering around .500, and they haven’t looked great in recent weeks. In a postgame interview with 97.3 The Fan after the Padres’ 4-3 loss to the Rangers, he stayed measured as he usually does. He pointed to the fight and the idea that better baseball is still coming.

But isn’t it a little tired in what has kind of already been a tired season?

That almost makes it more annoying. This was another winnable game that turned into another missed opportunity, the “we battled” stuff starts to feel like a consolation prize.

Padres’ latest loss came down to another wasted offensive opportunity

The Padres had Nathan Eovaldi on the ropes early enough to make something happen. They pushed three runs across, made him work, and had a real chance to turn the game into something a little less predictable. Instead, Eovaldi settled in, punched out nine over six innings, and the Padres spent the rest of the afternoon explaining away another close loss. 

Stammen’s optimism is starting to run into a reality check. He mentioned the bigger bats starting to show some life and framed that as part of the team’s identity. He’s not completely wrong.

The Padres do compete and they have enough talent to make games interesting even when they spend half the afternoon stepping on their own momentum.

But a comeback identity only matters if it actually goes somewhere. Right now, there’s too much hanging around and not enough finishing.

Believe it or not, the Padres rank fourth in Def at 9.0. But their offense is so far buried in last place at -42.4 that it’s hard to point the finger anywhere else. The Rockies are second to last in Off at -36.7, and that should tell you everything you need to know.

This offense has spent too much of the season making everything feel harder than it needs to be. So when Stammen points to a few encouraging swings or a few better at-bats from the “big boys,” that might be true in the smallest possible sense. But nobody is celebrating signs of life this deep into the season.

Then there’s Lucas Giolito, who might be an uncomfortable topic. Stammen talked about seeing flashes from him. That tracks. There are moments where Giolito looks like he’s close to finding something. But unfortunately, he is turning into another Padres arm where you’re holding your breath and hoping he can give you five innings. And that’s something the Padres really need to get away from.

To be fair, their starting pitching is in shambles, so you take what you can get. But this is just another example of what complacency looks like. It’s praising encouraging efforts that really are not good enough. When you have starters struggling to get through five innings, what exactly is the separator from this year to last year? It’s the exact same recipe that could not get them through the playoffs a year ago, so how could they possibly expect this to end any differently?

Yes, Giolito didn’t have a normal spring training. It takes time to get in sync. Putting an opener in front of him is supposed to help. All of that makes sense. And at the same time, there’s only so much patience a team can sell when the standings are still there every morning.

That’s where Stammen’s message gets difficult to buy. The manager can say the starting pitching will get better. Maybe it will. But right now, the Padres are living in the gap between what they believe and what they keep showing.

And now comes the fun part, not really. The Padres get the Braves (48-28) and Dodgers (49-29) back-to-back. Stammen framed that as a challenge and a chance to see if the Padres can hang with the best. We will certainly see. 

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