LOS ANGELES – From depths of rejection to heights of acceptance, Dodgers pitcher Vicente Padilla is on the verge of turning a forgettable year into one to remember.

The one-time Rangers’ cast-off will start the biggest game of his career on Saturday when he takes the hill for Game 3 of the National League Division Series against the Cardinals in St. Louis with his team up two games to zero in the best-of-five series.

“This is a second life that I have been given, and I’m grateful for it,” Padilla said. “I’m going to do my best (Saturday). We’ll hope for a little luck and see what happens.”

Nobody could have predicted what has happened to him so far this season.

The right-handed pitcher was released by Texas in early August because the club felt he no longer fit in. The Dodgers picked him up 10 days later for the prorated portion of the minimum salary, about $100,000.

The bargain shopping paid dividends. Padilla went 4-0 with a 3.20 ERA in eight games/seven starts with the Dodgers after signing with the club Aug. 19.

 ”He’s pitched well for us so you never know what’s going to happen, you never know who you’re going to need or when you’re going to need him,” Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti said. “So part of our plan all year long is to have enough to get us through whatever we needed. And if it meant having Padilla it was adding Padilla.”

Padilla’s arrival in Los Angeles was preceded by his reputation. He’s enigmatic, they said, and a bad teammate to boot.  Some of his former Rangers teammates bad-mouthed him on his way out the door, and others wondered how he would adjust to the Dodgers’ clubhouse.

“The way a person treats me is how I understand who a person is,” Dodgers left fielder Manny Ramirez said. “I can’t talk about what happened with Vicente in Texas or anywhere else because I wasn’t there.  He’s treated me with respect and he’s treated others here with respect. What else do you want?  Who am I to judge another person?  Let him be who he is.  have no problem with him.”

By all accounts, Padilla has fit in fine. Part of the reason for the smooth transition, Padilla said, is because the team is loaded with veterans and he’s made fast-friends with the Latin players in the clubhouse.  He lockers in a corner of the Dodgers’ clubhouse and is comfortable in his solitude, which sometimes makes others uncomfortable.

He speaks to Spanish media when he’s approached and he speaks “baseball-related English,” which is sometimes confused as fluent English, to non-Spanish speaking reporters. Padilla often uses a translator for fear of having his words misconstrued or embarrassing himself with poor English.

Some argue Padilla is simply on his best behavior because he is a free agent at the end of the season. Dodgers pitcher Randy Wolf, Padilla’s teammate in Philadelphia, said his old friend just needed a fresh start.

“When he came over here, I told some of the people here in LA that I thought he was going to be a big addition for us,” Wolf said. “I think a change of scenery was going to be big for him.  I think the way our team is, I think we’re very laid back.  We let guys do what they need to do.”

Whatever the Dodgers did, it worked.

“He’s been fine,” Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. “He doesn’t say much. I don’t think there are any issues at all.”

There were issues in Texas. Padilla went from Rangers Pitcher of the Year in 2008 to bad teammate of the year in less than 12 months, but he insists he’s always been the same person. Yes, he throws inside because that’s what he believes he has to do in order to establish his fastball. And if he happens to hit a batter along the way, well, that’s the hitter’s fault for not moving out of the way.

The way Padilla sees it, home plate is the battle field between the hitter and the pitcher, so he’ll throw his fastball, sinker, curveball and even his 55-mph eephus pitch to get the upper hand.

It’s not personal, and he wonders what all of the fuss is about. Padilla has hit 49 batters in the last four seasons but has not hit a batter since joining the Dodgers.

“If you don’t throw inside in this league, you will have problems with good hitters ,” Padilla said. “I’ve always thrown that way.”

The right-hander has already come a long way.

Padilla signed with the D-backs in 1998 out of Nicaragua because baseball provided the opportunity to pay the bills and see the world. As one story goes, he showed up for his tryout with the D-backs on a donkey. He said he never dreamed of being the next Nicaraguan pitching sensation like Dennis Martinez or as famous as countryman Alexis Arguello, a former world champion boxer.

Padilla  just wanted to pitch, make a living and help his family. He was raised in poverty by his grandparents 90 minutes outside of Managua under the watchful eye of the Marxist-based Sandinista regime in the war-torn town of Chinandega, so he understands real pressure – and oppression.

Baseball does not elicit real pressure.

“Pressure doesn’t help anybody. Why feel pressure?” Padilla said. “You do the work to prepare and you go do the job. You can’t control anything but working hard and preparing. You try to do more than you can and things go wrong.”

It should come as no surprise that Padilla and Ramirez have quickly become friends. Like Ramirez, Padilla loves the game and understands the business side of baseball. But the duo also share the belief that winning or losing is never a matter of life and death.

Death to Padilla is real. It’s as real as the sudden passing of the grandparents that took him in as child and as real as finding his estranged father in bed after a fatal heart attack. When Padilla recounts how he narrowly avoided being recruited as a child soldier by Sandinista guerrillas to fight the US-backed Contras and how many of his boyhood friends ended up dead, he thinks about how fortunate he is to be alive.

The love of family, not sport, drives Padilla. His mother, Flora, is traveling from Nicaragua to St. Louis for Saturday’s game.

“People take everything so seriously,” Ramirez said. “You can’t do that. You only get one life, and it’s short. You play hard, and if it doesn’t work out, you come back the next day.”<p>
Padilla’s outlook could have been part of the problem in Texas.  He angered some of his former teammates because opposing pitchers would retaliate after he hit a batter and it appeared as if Padilla didn’t care.

He said he cared. It didn’t matter. The Rangers tried to send Padilla a message earlier in the season by placing him on waivers after he hit former Rangers teammate Mark Teixeira twice in a game against the Yankees in June. He hit Oakland catcher Kurt Suzuki in what turned out to be his final start for the Rangers, and the A’s responded by hitting Michael Young. <p>
Fed up, the Rangers designated him for assignment two days later.

Shortly after his departure, a few former Rangers teammates criticized Padilla for missing meetings and not being a team player. Rangers outfielder Marlon Byrd, Padilla’s teammate in Philadelphia, was the most vocal critic.

“I’ll say it again, nobody ever came up to me and told me anything in Texas,” Padilla said. “If I was such a bad teammate, why didn’t anyone come say something to me? We could have talked about it. I loved my teammates and Texas. I just work hard and do my job. “

Ramirez, who left the Red Sox amid criticism two seasons ago, can relate. He also arrived in Los Angeles with a reputation as a bad teammate and questions about his character.<p>
“In this game, you find out who your real friends are when you leave a team,” he said. “But you just have to let it go and keep playing. Don’t worry about that.”

It seems Padilla is heeding Ramirez’s advice.

“Everybody wants to make me this bad guy, but what can you do? I can’t control that.” he said. “I am who I am. I’ll just keep working hard and pitch.”

PHILADELPHIA – Vicente Padilla is making his mark and could pitch Game 5 of the NLCS.<

On Sunday, Dodgers manager Joe Torre said that he is considering bumping Clayton Kershaw, who started Game 1, a spot in order to give Padilla the start Wednesday.<p>

“Padilla was obviously impressive his last outing and there’s the experience-wise,” said Torre. “At this point in time, I don’t know what will tip the scales, what the breakdown would be in the first four games for either one to pitch.”

Because of the days off Saturday and Tuesday, Kershaw would be pitching six days after his first start, while Padilla would be on a regular five-day cycle.  In his last start, Padilla allowed one run on four hits in 7 1/3 innings against the Phillies in Game 2.

Kershaw pitched four scoreless innings in Game 1 but gave up five runs in a game the Dodgers lost 8-6. The manager said the outcomes of Game 3 and Game 4 will factor into his decision.

“Off-days certainly help with the pitching decisions,” Torre said. “They allow you to do things in the bullpen you’d be hesitant about.”

 

PHILADELPHIA – In a matter of just a few games, Carlos Ruiz has gone from anonymous to famous. He’s gone from being a streaky hitter to one of the best batters on the team.

On Sunday against the Dodgers in Game 3 of the NLCS, life got even better for the Panamanian as he sat behind the plate while Philadelphia Cliff Lee dominated the Dodgers in an 11-0 win at Citizens Bank Park.

Yes, life is good for the man they call “Chooch.” Some have gone as far as to call this month “Choochtober.”

“It is a lot of fun,” Ruiz said. “But at the same time it has not been easy. It’s a good feeling to come out and win.”

There are a lot of people feeling good in the City of Brotherly Love and Lee and the Phillies offense have made it all possible. Lee allowed only three hits in eight scoreless innings. He struck out 10 hitters.

“When you’ve got the offense that we’ve got, I don’t want to go out there and walk guys and have long innings and stuff like that,”Lee said. “I’ve got to go out there and attack hitters and throw strikes and give our offense a chance to score runs. Tonight we did that pretty early and made things a lot easier for me. “

The Phillies made it look easy. Philadelphia’s offense attacked Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda and scored four runs in the first inning. The right-hander was pulled after only 1 1/3 innings.

He gave up six runs on six hits.

By contrast, Lee was almost perfect. He also picked up base hit in the eighth inning.

“When I saw Lee in the bullpen, I had a great feeling that today was going to be a good day,” Ruiz said. “I thought it was going to be a fun game but at the same time I was thinking that we need to score some runs for him.”

The Phillies provided the offense Ruiz wanted. Leading 6-0 after two innings, the Phillies tacked on two runs in the fifth and one run in the sixth. Shane Victorino hit a three-run homer in the eighth to end the scoring.

Lee did the rest.

“His curveball and changeup were great,” Ruiz said. “I knew whatever I put down that he was going to throw for a strike.  That was the key.  He mixed it up with speeds.”
Ruiz has also put on a show during the postseason.  He went 2-for-3 in the victory and is hitting .625 in the NLCS. The key to his success is his ability to stay calm. Experience also helps.
“I feel good,” he said.  “I put it in my mind that the postseason that I try to relax and enjoy the game.”

Ruiz’s work has not gone unnoticed. He has quickly become the team’s leading hitter, rivaled only by Ryan Howard, who is hitting .400 and has picked up a RBI in seven consecutive postseason games this year.

Perhaps it really is Choochtober.

“Carlos Ruiz has really improved since last year, but he started improving the second half of the season last year, and he’s come a long ways,” Manuel said. “He handles the pitching staff good, he plays aggressive, and the pitchers like to throw to him.  They trust him.  He can stop the running game, and about the last two months his hitting has really picked up.  He’s been doing a good job.”