Major League Baseball

Padilla will play a key role for Dodgers

Published Aug. 20, 2009 7:50 a.m. ET

foxsports

Two first-place teams have added veteran starting pitchers, at a cost of about $100,000 apiece. And they did so under very different circumstances.

John Smoltz is a Cardinal. Vicente Padilla is a Dodger. Neither was on the active roster Wednesday night, when St. Louis won, 3-2, at Dodger Stadium.

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Smoltz is the popular veteran who was wooed aggressively by the St. Louis Chamber of Baseball Commerce, with phone calls from John Mozeliak, Tony La Russa, Dave Duncan and Mark DeRosa.

Padilla has the better 2009 numbers but suspect makeup. He's the unpredictable outcast hired under duress. But he's going to help his new team over the final six weeks.

In fact, he means more to the Dodgers than Smoltz does to the Cardinals.

Smoltz was a luxury for a team that already has one foot in October. Padilla was a necessity for a club that is scrambling for starters. If all goes well for Padilla in a Class AAA start on Saturday, he will be on the mound next Thursday in Colorado.

Padilla isn't going to win the Roberto Clemente Award, but the Dodgers aren't fretting about that. They need a pitcher, not an ambassador. Once Hiroki Kuroda was hit in the head with that line drive, once Smoltz picked the Cardinals over the Dodgers, what exactly did you expect general manager Ned Colletti to do?