Series loss to Nats a microcosm of Stammen's evolving 'pen strategy

WASHINGTON -- Bullpen management is a thorny maze for any manager -- new, old or otherwise.

San Diego manager Craig Stammen knew this from spending his Major League pitching life as part of bullpen groups. He guessed -- and second-guessed -- along with his former managers. Some of those managers used roles defined by the inning. Others used matchup math to help drive decisions. When Stammen began his playing career, bringing in a reliever midway through the game was only necessitated by a failing starter, never by strategy.

Not now. Circumstance and matchups rule, while inning number and pitch count have slid to the back burner. In the Padres’ 4-2 loss on Sunday at Nationals Park, Stammen faced a tricky decision -- no matter the era. Starter Griffin Canning rolled into the fifth inning on just 58 pitches. He had allowed only a fourth-inning solo homer on a 3-0 pitch. The bottom of the lineup was coming up. But Canning entered the game with a 7.54 ERA in five starts.

A single followed a flyout. Early stirring in the bullpen evolved into light throwing for left-hander Adrian Morejon, the owner of a 100-mph fastball and Stammen’s preferred lefty in high-leverage situations. The Nationals’ best hitter, left-handed-hitting James Wood, was coming up in a 1-0 game. Stammen faced a question that will repeat itself all year: Is now the time?

He decided on Sunday that, no, it was not -- at least, not yet. Morejon hadn’t reached the top of the mound and spent enough time getting loose for his name to be put up on the bullpen signage. He was still soft-tossing from the front of the mound when Wood took a pitch, fouled off the next one, and hit the third into the center-field seats. After the homer, Washington led, 3-0.

"We had Morejon kind of going,” Stammen said. “It’s just a tough spot. We can’t overuse our bullpen. They are the strength of our team and we need that strength the entire season. If you’ve got a starting pitcher on a low pitch count, you’ve got to kind of trust him.

“Unfortunately, third time through, first guy hits a two-run homer and makes you think, 'All right, we should get the [starter] out the third time through.' We’re trying to manage a lot of different things in that space. Who’s to say you bring in a lefty and [Wood] doesn’t do the same thing? But [Canning] battled his tail off [Sunday].”

Earlier in the series, Stammen labeled bullpen management, “Probably a never-ending, you’re never-going-to-figure-it-out type of thing.” He said he -- like most pitchers -- never wanted to come out of a game. He also knows that while San Diego’s offense spits and sputters through the first two months of the season and the starting pitching is potent at the top but currently plodding in the middle, what may be the league’s best bullpen girds the Padres. They need it now. They will also need it later.

“Yesterday, today, the day before,” Stammen said of when bullpen management is crucial. “Every day but the off-day, you’re juggling between over-using them and letting your starters go and having a team that’s able to handle that workload throughout the season, and winning the game that day.”

Stammen used Mason Miller for a four-out save Friday. It was the third time in May that Miller’s 100-mph-plus repertoire was sent to the mound for more than an inning, and fourth time this season. He did it 10 times all of last season. Managing his monster closer -- who said Stammen has no problem with pitching more than an inning -- is a microcosm of handling the broader bullpen.

“The issue is that you don’t want to [use Miller for four outs], but you can,” Stammen said. “It’s always hard to leave him in the ‘pen and especially when their best hitter is coming to the plate. We’ve flipped that coin a couple times. Each time, it’s worked out well for us.”

On Sunday, Miller did not appear. Morejon was a half-thought in the fifth. However, Morejon was ready to face Wood in the seventh with two runners on base and one out. Wood grounded into a fielder’s choice. Right-handed pinch-hitter Andrés Chaparro was next. His role on the Nationals? Hit against left-handed pitching. He doubled down the third base line to drive in a run.

The in-the-moment revisionist and extreme argument is to forget the pitch count, and worry about later …later. Send Morejon to the mound in the fifth. Jason Adam -- historically better against lefties than righties -- and Miller remain on the board for moves in the final innings.

However, it’s also May 31. The Padres stumbled through the last two weeks, but are six games over .500 and well-stationed for the rest of the season -- if the bullpen holds, which is largely up to Stammen.