{"id":669326,"date":"2026-04-08T00:50:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T00:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/669326\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T00:50:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T00:50:21","slug":"padres-finally-found-offensive-life-after-craig-stammen-made-an-overdue-lineup-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/669326\/","title":{"rendered":"Padres finally found offensive life after Craig Stammen made an overdue lineup move"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-darkGrey my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5l\">The Padres have gotten off to a sluggish start in 2026, but after securing a series win against the Boston Red Sox over the weekend, it seems as if the team may finally be getting back on the right track.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-darkGrey my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5o\">After dropping the series opener by a score of 5\u20132, San Diego bounced back with a 3\u20132 victory on Saturday, and followed that up with an 8\u20136 victory on Sunday. The win on Saturday was fueled by a crucial, analytics driven, decision by new manager Craig Stammen.<\/p>\n<p>Craig Stammen\u2019s long-awaited Padres adjustment may have finally awakened offense<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-darkGrey my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5u\">The Padres played to the platoon advantage, and put hitters that wouldn\u2019t be at the top of the lineup,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/padres\/news\/ramon-laureano-gets-game-winning-hit-in-9th-inning-for-padres\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> in that very spot<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-darkGrey my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5x\">\u201cFacing Red Sox left-hander Connelly Early on Saturday, Stammen shuffled his lineup in a major way. Laureano and Miguel Andujar &#8212; a pair of potent right-on-left bats &#8212; moved up into the second and third spots in the lineup, respectively. The lefty-hitting Jackson Merrill sat. Freddy Fermin was up to sixth. Ty France started and batted seventh.\u201d \u2014 AJ Cassavell<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-darkGrey my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"60\"><a href=\"https:\/\/friarsonbase.com\/padres-newest-bat-is-already-making-the-2026-plan-look-smarter\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Andujar finished a whopping 3-for-5<\/a> and scored one of the three Padre runs, and more importantly, proving Stammen\u2019s analytical approach correct.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-darkGrey my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"63\"><a href=\"https:\/\/friarsonbase.com\/padres-early-outfield-revelation-is-validating-a-bold-late-season-bet\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Laureano wounded up finishing 1-for-4<\/a> with a crucial RBI single in the top of the ninth inning that gave the Padres the lead, further bolstering Stammen\u2019s point.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-darkGrey my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"66\">This chess, not checkers, approach by Stammen and the analytics department helped the Padres evade a terrible start to 2026. After struggling in a six-game homestand against the Detroit Tigers and San Francisco Giants, finishing 2\u20134, the team is quietly building up momentum as we get deeper into the regular season.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-darkGrey my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"69\">The Padres complete their six-game <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/german-marquez-padres-beat-pirates\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">road trip this week with a stop in Pittsburgh<\/a> where they take on the redhot Pirates. After, they return home to open up yet another homestand against the Colorado Rockies and Seattle Mariners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Padres have gotten off to a sluggish start in 2026, but after securing a series win against&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2407],"tags":[5,4,43,137,18,4339,4338],"class_list":{"0":"post-669326","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego-padres","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-padres","11":"tag-san-diego","12":"tag-san-diego-padres","13":"tag-sandiego","14":"tag-sandiegopadres"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116366346247780342","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}