Don't Look Now, The Nats Are Tied For First

Ranking nearly as high on the NL East Suprise-O-Meter in these first few days of the season behind the Reds sweep of the Mets must be the Washington Nationals taking two of three from the Phillies.

Last night's 10th inning homer by Jose Vidro have them a 5-4 victory and their second in a row. Loaiza flirted with a perfect game until it was broken up by Jim Thome in the fifth inning. The charge was led again by Wilkerson, who went 9 for 14 with a home run and three RBIs in the series.

So the question after two come-from-behind late victories is are the Nats that fiesty or is the Phillies pen that bad?

New Brave Tim Hudson in a less-than-impressive debut, threw just 52 of his 93 pitches for strikes. However, he only gave up one run, so as expected, won his first outing as a Brave, 4-2 to give the Mets' next opponent two wins out of three against their NL East rival Marlins.

A.J. Burnett (0-1) gave up four runs (two unearned) on seven hits with six strikeouts in six innings. Three of the four runs allowed by the hard-throwing right-hander came with two outs.

NL East Upcoming:

Philly goes to St Louis, the Mets to Atlanta and the Marlins will host the Nats

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Instead of going to Minnesota with a perfect record and one-game lead in the American League Central Division, the Sox are tied with the Twins after Thursday's 11-5 loss to Cleveland in 11 innings at U.S. Cellular Field. Sox closer Shingo Takatsu blew a 5-2 lead with three ninth-inning homers proving that the blown lead by closer bug is running rampant in the Major Leagues. It was only the second blown save in Takatsu's Sox career. With it, the Indians got their first win of the
season leaving only the Mets and Pirates as the winless losers of 2005.

So this weekend will see the first of the AL Central battles comes when the Twins host the White Sox.

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In the West, Jeff Weaver pitched eight scoreless innings and singled home a run in a three-run sixth inning as the Dodgers blanked the onds-less San Francisco Giants, 6-0.

I was up at 6 am this morning to discover the Padres and Pirates still going strong into the 12th at 0-0, some 8 timezone hours away. It wasn't until a batter was walked with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 12th that the Padres came away with their home opening win.

Today's Menu:

After a night of rather ho-hum starting matchups, we return to excitement on Friday.

Roger Clemens gets his first start of the season against the 3-0 Reds. He has 328 career wins and needs one more to tie Steve Carlton for ninth on the all-time list.

After three games without the pair of aces getting a start, Kerry Wood gets the Cubs home opening start against the Brewers. The Chicago City Council gave final, unanimous approval Wednesday to the Cubs' plan to add 1,790 bleacher seats, a 100-seat restaurant overlooking center field and a year-round five-story building and parking garage next to the ballpark that will house retail stores, another restaurant and 400 parking spaces.

The Cubs will pay the city $3 million for the right to build over the sidewalks on Waveland and Sheffield Avenues and for the rights to a piece of land west of Wrigley Field, currently a parking lot, where the new building will stand.

Mark Mulder will start his first game as a Cardinal as they take on the Phillies at Busch Stadium

The O's travel to Yankee Stadium to face the juggernaut and free agent signee Jared Wright, who probably wouldn't be starting this game if Kevin Brown wasn't old and hurt. In his career, Wright is 2-0 with a 5.13 ERA in four starts against Baltimore. Better still, he's facing the Fat Man who spent his offseason getting drunk, punching judges and sitting in third world jail cells.

The D Train is ready to leave the station as the Marlins host the Nats.


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Meaningless but true, Schilling was rocked for Pawtucket.

Cub ace Mark Prior was also roughed up in the minors Thursday night.

And another famous face, that of John Rocker is returning to the minors, all the way to the Long Island Ducks. Think he's not hard up? In 2004, Rocker allowed 21 earned runs, 25 hits, 29 walks, 4 home runs, and fanned 20 in only 20 innings of work with Tampa Bay and Durham (AAA, TB).