There's No Tying in Baseball

Washington at New York. Nationals 2, Metropolitans 2 in 10 innings.

Look, ma, no suck!

Hard to say what's worse: The fact that we lost Cousin Vinny Castilla to a knee injury - in the Metropolitans' bullpen! - or the fact that Cousin Vinny will probably be healthy in time for opening day. Yes, he's our starting third baseman, and yes, we're paying him the annual budget of a small country. But he's also 2-for-20 this spring. Two hits in seven games.

Which makes Cousin Vinny, in Washington terms, the Dick Gephardt of baseball. He's unbeatable on his home turf - Missouri for Gephardt, Denver for Cousin Vinny - but couldn't win a solo game of tic-tac-toe elsewhere. And considering that Space Coast Stadium is within a few feet of the same elevation above sea level as RFK, we're getting a pretty good preview of what Cousin Vinny will do for the Nationals here in Washington.

The good news is that Esteban Loaiza pitched his third straight non-crap start. That's more non-crap pitching than Esteban managed all season last year. In fact, Esteban lowered his ERA from 3.00 to 2.57 on the night, allowing one run on five hits and his first walk of the season in five innings. That ties Esteban with ¡Livan! on the spring.

Perhaps it helps that Randy St. Claire has forced Esteban to change the name of his offspeed pitch from "Suckball" to "Change-up." Or that United Airlines finally located and forwarded to Esteban the five miles per hour of velocity he lost at O'Hare last April. Whatever the cause, the entire Nationals caucus can take heart that the senior starter from Tijuana is pitching up to his number-three-man potential.