PORT ST. LUCIE - Kaz Matsui came out swinging in his Mets debut, going 0-for-2 in a specially arranged DH role Monday during New York's 6-4 win over the Cardinals.
The prized shortstop from Japan missed the first five spring games because of a cut on the middle finger of his right hand. Eager to get going but unable to throw, he was in the lineup a day after having two stitches removed.
"I was a little nervous, here and there," Matsui said through an interpreter.
"I knew I was the leadoff batter. My name was called out in the stands and the fans reacted and I was grateful."
After bowing to the catcher and tipping his helmet to the plate umpire, Matsui started hacking.
Matsui swung hard at Jeff Suppan's first pitch in the first, pulling a liner foul to rightfield. A seven-time All-Star in Japan, he wound up with a foul popout.
"The first good pitch, I wanted to attack. I had that plan," Matsui said.
"Rather than seeing the balls go by me, I thought I'd crack at that first one."
The next time up, he took the first pitch, ran the count to 2-and-2 and lashed a line drive that second baseman Bo Hart caught.
VIRGINIA WANTS ANSWER: The head of the group trying to bring a team to northern Virginia said he will end his efforts if Major League Baseball doesn't pick a home for the Expos this year.
The Expos were bought by the other 29 teams before the 2002 season.
Baseball failed to meet deadlines in 2002 and 2003 on finding a home for the team, which has alienated its Montreal fan base through years of poor ownership.
Baseball officials say they hope to decide by mid July on where to move the Expos for 2005.
"We're holding them to their word," Williams L. Collins III said.
"Our group has endured 11 years and $11-million worth of uncertainty, but we do believe this effort will ultimately be successful."
CUBS: Former Devil Rays farmhand Scott McClain hit two homers in an 8-4 win over the Brewers. McClain, who played in Japan from 2001-03, homered leading off the second and hit an opposite-field three-run homer to right in the third.
DODGERS: Jeff Weaver was roughed up in his second spring start, a 14-5 loss to the Orioles. The right-hander, acquired from the Yankees in the Kevin Brown trade, failed to get through the third, allowing five runs, four earned, and eight hits.
INDIANS: Cleveland renewed Jody Gerut's contract, choosing not to give him a multiyear deal.
METS: A pizza deliveryman who says he was roughed up by outfielders Karim Garcia and Shane Spencer filed a police report, and investigators said they would try to question the two. Sgt. Robert McGhee of the Port St. Lucie Police Department said Eric Vidal, 20, made an allegation of simple battery after a dispute in a parking lot last week.
ORIOLES: Rookie second baseman Mike Fontenot continued to make a good impression, hitting his second homer of the spring. Fontenot, coming off a breakout season at Double-A Bowie, leads the team in homers and RBIs with five.
PADRES: Slugger Phil Nevin has a strained left shoulder and is expected to miss about four weeks. The first baseman was hurt against Anaheim on Sunday night, a year to the day he dislocated the shoulder, which kept him sidelined until July 23.
The area that was surgically repaired last spring was still intact, the team said.
REDS: Brandon Larson homered and drove in six in a 9-5 split-squad win over the Pirates. Larson, trying to lock up the third-base job, had a run-scoring single, a two-run double and a three-run homer.
WHITE SOX: Manager Ozzie Guillen finally got a look at his projected opening-day lineup as rightfielder Magglio Ordonez returned from a heel injury, then hit a run-scoring single in a 6-5 win over the A's.
