No Place Like Home

Phillies Return to Winning Ways at The Vet

Scott Rolen and Vicente Padilla have this little thing going where they like to good-naturedly tease each other around the clubhouse and team hotels. Lately though, some of it has spilled over onto the field. So when Padilla struck out Jeromy Burnitz for the second out in the eighth inning, Tuesday night, he wisecracked something to Rolen.

The thing is, Padilla doesn't speak English and Rolen doesn't speak Spanish.

	Manager Larry Bowa says Vicente Padilla's win over the Mets was his best outing of the year. (AP)

"I have no idea what he's saying. I have no clue," Rolen said. "That's the beauty of it."

For the Phillies, the beauty of it is that the New York Mets had no idea what Padilla was throwing at them in Tuesday night's 4-0 victory at the Vet. It's like he was throwing the ball in a completely different language too.

"That's the best game I've seen him pitch," manager Larry Bowa said. "Against that lineup, to pitch the way he did is unbelievable."

Padilla tossed a three-hitter through eight innings, striking out four and walking two. What makes Bowa's comment even more poignant is the fact that Padilla came four outs away from a no-hitter during his last start at the Vet on May 10 against Arizona.

"He was in complete command," Bowa said.

Mets manager Bobby Valentine went so far as to say that Padilla's fastball, which dances like a bobblehead doll, is better than anything his club has seen this season -- and the Mets have faced Javier Vazquez of Montreal, Kerry Wood in Chicago and John Smoltz of the Braves.

"That was the best fastball and best stuff I've seen this year,'' Valentine gushed. "It was sinking to the right-handers and cutting to the left-handers. Anytime you face pitching like that it will make you look tired."

More importantly, Padilla (6-3, 2.57) gave the Phils their second win in a row and pushed their record to 19-26, which is just five games behind the NL East-leading Mets. Interestingly, the win makes the Phillies 15-8 at the friendly confines of Veterans Stadium, which so happens to be the best mark in the National League.

Now if they could just win some games on the road.

Padilla's gem comes just a few days removed from a six-game, road losing skid that sent Bowa into a borderline tirade, Sunday, in Phoenix. The 4-18 record away from home is tied with Detroit for the worst in the Majors and it's a fact that has the Phillies scratching their heads trying to come up with an explanation. In fact, shortstop Jimmy Rollins, who jump-started an eighth-inning rally, isn't even going to try to figure it out.

"Next question," Rollins replied when asked for the reason why his team is so good at home but so bad on the road.

The answer is apropos because when the Phils are at home with Padilla on the mound, a win is almost guaranteed. He's pitched 22 consecutive scoreless innings at home and has a 1.88 ERA to go with it. Chalk in 6.9 strikeouts per nine innings and 6.2 hits and the opposition ought to just wave the white flag.

But Tuesday night, against a Mets' lineup that featured Roberto Alomar, Mo Vaughn, Mike Piazza, Edgardo Alfonzo and Jeromy Burnitz, Padilla really opened some eyes... not that he didn't in his near no-hitter against the Diamondbacks.

After giving up back-to-back hits to the first two hitters of the game, Padilla didn't surrender another hit until the seventh inning and retired 15 of the next 17 along the way and 20 of the next 22 he faced. Of that 20, 13 hit groundballs meaning that 16 of his 24 outs came on grounders.

It was an infielder's paradise.

"He keeps you on your toes and keeps you in the game," Rollins said.

Rolen agreed with his infield mate and added that facing Padilla doesn't look like any fun.

"It looks like he forced a lot of strange at bats," Rolen said. "It looks like a lot of hitters were pretty uncomfortable."

Meanwhile, Padilla was pretty non-plussed about the whole thing. When told of Bowa's comments, he shrugged and agreed with his manager. He also said the key was keeping the ball down, which worked as proven by all the ground balls.

But ground balls or not, the Phils were having as much trouble placing a crooked number up there as the Mets. Jeff D'Amico matched Padilla through seven innings, surrendering just three hits and whiffing seven. However, unlike Padilla, he couldn't get past the eighth.

That's where Rollins stroked a one-out double to the gap in right-center that almost was a triple. An out later, Rolen knocked him in on a first-pitch single up the middle. That was all Padilla needed.

"I was a little nervous [when Rolen came to bat] because I threw a heckuva game and wanted a win," Padilla said in Spanish.

After Rolen's single, D'Amico walked Bobby Abreu intentionally and was pulled for reliever David Weathers. For his six pitch, Weather rolled a slider and Pat Burrell knocked it into the Mets' bullpen for a three-run homer. How's that for good measure?

"It's nice," Bowa said of Burrell's three-run shot. "We were short on those. They're nice because they let us breathe easier."

Maybe not so for D'Amico.

D'Amico, who tossed a two-hit shutout in his last start against Los Angeles, had pitched 16 straight scoreless innings before the eighth. He allowed three runs, five hits and struck out seven in 7 2/3 innings.

"I just keep thinking about the pitch to Rolen," D'Amico said. "I guess before that everything was going good. In a situation like that, with the game on the line, to make a stupid pitch like that is unacceptable."

	Scott Rolen congratulates Pat Burrell after his three-run homer against the Mets, Tuesday night. (AP)

The heavy breathing will start soon.

The Phils and Mets play the middle game of the three-game series on Wednesday when Terry Adams (1-3, 4.06) faces lefty Al Leiter (5-2, 1.74). Last time out, Adams was staked with a 6-2 lead only to see it disappear during the Diamondbacks' 12-9 victory last Friday in Phoenix. That was the game where Erubiel Durazo blasted three home runs and drove in nine RBIs as Adams could get past the sixth for the eighth start in a row.

However, Adams has only walked one batter in his last two games (in 11 innings) and has only allowed four homers all season.

Leiter has been the Mets' ace so far. During his last outing, last Thursday in San Diego, the veteran southpaw allowed seven hits and one unearned run through six innings in a 3-1 victory. Last season against the Phillies, Leiter was 1-0 with a 3.60 ERA in four starts.

Notes: Burrell's homer was his 11th of the season. Last year, he didn't get his 11th until July 21. ... The Phils three double plays is a season high. ... Robert Person, on the disabled list with tendonitis in his right elbow, allowed two runs and three hits in 3 1-3 innings in a rehab start with Triple-A Scranton. The two runs came on solo homers.

John R. Finger
ComcastSportsNet.com