SAN DIEGO -- Craig Stammen had a lead when he took the ball from his starting pitcher on Friday night. When that happens this season, the Padres will generally like their chances.
They’ve built one of the best bullpens in baseball. A year ago, they set a record by sending three relievers to the All-Star Game, and that was before they added Mason Miller at the Trade Deadline. The Padres spent the early part of the offseason wondering if they should move any of their back-end weapons to the rotation and the later part of the offseason wondering if they should trade from their bullpen to boost their rotation.
Eventually, they decided to let it ride. They’d built an elite bullpen. They would let that bullpen do its thing.
But here’s the thing about bullpens: They’re fickle. One night, Jeremiah Estrada can’t locate. Wandy Peralta can’t finish off Kevin McGonigle.
And that’s how you end up with this: a 5-2 loss to the Tigers on Friday at Petco Park, in which the Padres blew a pair of late leads. They’re now 0-2 for the first time since 2023.
The results aren’t ideal. But Stammen, still in search of his first win as Padres manager, wasn’t going to chase this one. With the game hanging in the balance in the eighth inning, closer Mason Miller never got loose.
“We decided before the game that [multiple innings for Miller] was probably not an option,” Stammen said. “It will be an option at some point in the season. Just not in Game 2.”
After a lopsided defeat in Thursday’s opener, Friday offered the first real glimpse into some of Stammen’s strategic preferences, particularly regarding his bullpen. He avoided using Miller for multiple innings, clearly keeping the big picture in mind.
But he also maneuvered aggressively, calling on Adrian Morejon as early as the sixth -- then asking him for six outs. Morejon entered with a runner aboard and induced a pair of ground balls, which could’ve ended the inning. Instead, a Manny Machado error proved costly, as the Tigers tied the game.
Still, Morejon was at his usual dominant best. Better, perhaps. He’d only previously thrown four pitches clocked at 100 mph or harder across his six big league seasons. On Friday, he threw three more, including 101.1 -- his career high.
The Padres grabbed another lead in the sixth when Ramón Laureano doubled home Jackson Merrill. Morejon pitched a dominant seventh. Miller would have the ninth with a lead or in a tie game.
That left Stammen with only the eighth inning to sort out.
In an ideal world, that eighth inning would’ve been Jason Adam’s. Adam came oh-so-close to cracking the Padres’ Opening Day roster. He made two Cactus League appearances and dominated both. But Adam is coming off left quad surgery, and the Padres decided to play it safe, beginning his season with a rehab stint.
They missed him Friday night.
Estrada was the next man up. His stuff is as dominant as any of the Padres’ other setup options. But not as consistent. And on Friday, Estrada had serious trouble locating.
“The splitter was one of the best things that was working for me during the spring,” he said. “Today, it just disappeared.”
Estrada walked three straight Tigers. Stammen -- in perhaps another litmus test -- opted to stick with Estrada for the lefty Riley Greene. Estrada executed his pitch -- a 96 mph fastball, in on Greene’s hands. Greene grounded to short -- except the Padres had shortstop Xander Bogaerts shifted to second base, and Bogaerts had no play.
Infield single, tie game.
“He happened to hit it where we weren’t playing,” Stammen said.
Estrada rebounded to punch out Torkelson, bringing McGonigle to the plate in a tie game with two outs and the bases loaded. Stammen had another decision to make.
At a different point on the calendar, maybe that’s Miller time. (Or, maybe it’s Miller time three batters prior.) But with Miller unavailable until the ninth, Stammen called for the lefty Peralta to face the lefty-hitting McGonigle.
They battled for 10 pitches -- the Tigers’ rookie phenom against the grizzled Padres veteran who has made a career out of getting hitters like McGonigle out. McGonigle fouled off six offerings from Peralta.
“I gave it everything I could,” Peralta would later say.
Eventually McGonigle found the mistake he was looking for. He laced a two-run single into right-center, the game’s decisive blow. For one night at least -- with Adam still unavailable and Miller unavailable until the ninth -- the Padres’ super-bullpen was only hypothetical.