As brutal as things are for the Phillies pitching staff these days (and Brian Peoples doesn’t need reminding, thanks) I somehow suspect they wouldn’t be thrilled to have Vicente Padilla back.
Padilla, currently with Texas, managed to allow 4 HR’s to the A’s this afternoon in a 5 at bat span, 3 of ’em (Chavez, Thomas, Bradley) on consecutive pitches. The latter accomplishment, says fact checking cuz Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, hasn’t been matched since ex-Met Dave Mlicki was serving ’em up in September, 2001, “not even by Jose Lima.”
Though the citizens of Phoenix and Boston don’t need any reminding, the rest of the baseball planet can stand the occasional reminder that Mariano Rivera is human. Though if Hideki Matsui had thrown to second instead of third on Joe Mauer’s 9th inning single, Mo might only have a blown save to his discredit instead of a BS along with the loss.
Lovers of work-safe internet video will be pleased to know that MLB Advanced Media’s other fledgling cash-cow, MiLB.TV is offering free webcasts of selected Triple A games through the end of April. Saturday’s attraction featured the Indianapolis Indians’ 3-2 home win over Syracuse. Among the near-household names involved were former Mets Jason Phillips (Syracuse) and Scott Strickland (Indianapolis) and one-time blogging sensation C.J. Nitkowski (Indianapolis).