CRAIG’S COMMENTS: Speaking of Walker Buehler, the offense, Jake Cronenworth starting rehab and the importance of Samad Taylor, Will Wagner and Rodolfo Durán

Samad Taylor at Petco Park

Right-hander Walker Buehler will start against his former team Friday night as the Padres open a three-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Petco Park. So, Padres manager Craig Stammen discussed Buehler at the start of his daily, pregame media session:

“Walker Buehler has been great here of late,” said Stammen. “It goes back to command for me. He’s always had the stuff. He’s been working a little bit on new stuff and different pitches that he is using this year. But command of all those weapons has really been what’s set him apart.

“As a minor league free agent signing and being the guy who is kind of holding our rotation together right now, Walker has been amazing. We’ve seen it from other pitchers who have been really successful one way and then they’ve re-invented themselves and have been really successful another way. They make it look easy and it’s not that easy.

“Buehler has put in a ton of work to be where he is right now.”

Stammen on the Padres’ offense: “We’ve just been taking better at-bats overall. A few bloops fall in and it makes everybody feel like we’re hitting a little bit better. We’re working every day. They’ve been working all season long on trying to improve in every at-bat and every situation. I think finally, we’re getting to see some of those results we’ve been working for.”

Stammen talked about Jake Cronenworth (concussion) who starts a rehab assignment Friday with Triple-A El Paso:

“Jake is finally cleared to play,” Stammen began. “We decided to get him out to El Paso and get him some rehab games going and hopefully he shows that he’s in good shape and hits well and we can call him back up again to play second base for us.

“He’s going to give us a little bit of an indication of ‘Yeah, I feel ready, my timing’s back’ that kind of stuff. It’s almost a little bit like spring training where we have to more so not healthy-wise, but just baseball-wise seeing if he’s ready to play baseball and ready to play every day and ready to get back.

“We’ve been missing that left-handed bat in our lineup that gives that professional at-bat, that works the pitcher and has the opportunity for some slug. Plus, his great defense. He just does all the little things on the field that you kind of miss and it’s not really recognized in the box score but over the course of time it’s ‘Man, we really miss a player like Jake.’ And we’ve missed his this entire time. It will be awesome to have him back.”

Rodolfo Durán at Petco Park

Stammen on the performance of Samad Taylor, Rodolfo Durán and Will Wagner since they came up from El Paso to fill some holes:

“It’s very important to have guys like that who can come up and help you,” said Stammen. “We feel very confident with those guys. They’ve come up here and proven their worth and done a lot of good things for us on the field.

“Wagner has taken some great at-bats. He’s taken at-bats a lot like Cronenworth has his entire career. He’s working the pitcher, getting walks, getting base hits. Durán has been amazing behind the plate. Nobody is running on the arm he has. Taylor has come up and just been a little spark plug. He’s hitting almost .400.

“All three of those guys have proven their worth for our team and helped us kind of get out of that little funk we were in.”

Stammen offered more detail on Taylor, who has seen time hitting between Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jackson Merrill in the №2 spot in the batting order:

“Samad Taylor won’t be hitting in the №2 spot for the rest of the season, let’s put it that way,” said Stammen. “But he creates a little bit of havoc between Fernando and Merrill. He’s a little energizer bunny and he’s energy in the dugout. He’s an energy giver and gives energy to our lineup. He can bunt, steal, hit-and-run, play great defense. He just does a lot for our team similar to what we talked about with Jake. He does those little things that helps our team win a baseball game.”