Vicente

Padilla

Padilla will be making his first career start on three days rest. Despite spending most of the season on the DL with right triceps tenditis, manager Larry Bowa is not concerned about using Padilla on short rest. We will see about that.

“He’s fine,” agent Rudy Valenzuela said. “It was a fender-bender. It wasn’t anything major. He went home and went to sleep after it happened. It wasn’t a big deal. Nobody was hurt.”

Keep Padilla active.

Manager Larry Bowa showed Padilla film of their discovery. Pitching coach Joe Kerrigan said, ''I think we have it under control.’' Padilla faces the Mets tonight, who scored five runs on 11 hits off him in his last outing.

''He’s just going through a bad period. He’s not pitching with very much confidence right now,’' Kerrigan said. Manager Larry Bowa believes Padilla is throwing too many fastballs which aren’t moving as much as they had been before Padilla’s bad four-game stretch. None of the Phillies coaches seem to think Padilla is injured. His confidence can be worked on, but with Padilla’s only start this week coming in Houston, you’ll want to reserve him.

Phillies pitching coach Joe Kerrigan said it is a pitch Padilla can use when his curveball isn’t working. ''He hasn’t felt really comfortable with his curveball,’' Kerrigan said. ''So he jumped over. I think he’s got a little better feel to it. The key would be, on any given night, the curveball might feel better than the slider, or vice versa. It’s up to that starting pitcher that night when he leaves the bullpen to know what feels best. But it gives him that option. If he only had a curveball and he didn’t have a feel for it that night, now where do you go?’'

Initial reports that Padilla suffered a broken collarbone in the car accident that killed his best friend turned out to be false.

That’s how Padilla has remained winless despite a 3.86 ERA. Unfortunately, his run support might not get any better against Randy Johnson tonight. Just another example of how Wins is the most fickle of fantasy categories.

The headline in Monday’s El Nuevo Diario, one of the principal newspapers in Managua, Nicaragua’s capital, read: “Vicente Padilla is destroying himself.” Considering that Padilla hasn’t been involved in any off-the-field incidents (there was the October car accident, but he wasn’t driving), there doesn’t seem to be any huge reason for concern here.

Padilla threw a simulated game yesterday, and Wolf will throw batting practice today. The two starters with sore elbows will be on pitch counts once they return.