still on the road, but in the right state

The Astros have their last 3 regular season games against the American League this weekend, facing the Texas Rangers at Arlington. Vicente Padilla will be facing the Astros and bringing his 61 career plunks to the mound. Padillas has hit 11 batters this season, the most in the American League and behind only Dontrelle Willis in the Majors. He's hit 6 batters in his last 4 starts, and plunked Craig Biggio on May 11, 2003 when he pitched for the Phillies. If Biggio doesn't get hit by a pitch today it will be the first time since 1990 that he's made it through an entire month of June without being hit by a pitch.

In 1995 Jeff McCurry hit Biggio with a pitch for the Pirates on June 30th, and on June 30, 2001 against Milwaukee, Biggio was hit by both Allen Levrault and Mike Buddie.