Two of baseball's best young pitchers face off tonight at the local baseball yard: It's two-time Cy Young award winning lefty Johan Santana of the Twins against the M's fireballing, barely legal righty, Felix Hernandez. There's national bragging rights at stake as well: Both Santana and Hernandez are Venezuelan. You can bet they'll be watching the matchup in the street of Caracas, unless Hugo Chavez has banned baseball as an imperialist tool. Gametime is 7:05......

One week after pissing off fans of evolution and above-average DH production by signing Carl Everett, the Mariners agreed to pay Jarrod (rhymes with "Herod") Washburn $36 million for his unique brand of stultifyingly mediocre pitching. And the masses are in revolt. Art Thiel, writing in the Seattle P-I, says that the M's overpaid for Washburn. This is true. As Thiel points out, mediocre Washburn will make more than White Sox ace Freddy Garcia. At......

New Mariner Richie Sexson hit two home runs, Jamie Moyer pitched 5.2 strong innings, and the bullpen was perfect as the M's won on Opening Day. Today Gil Meche faces the Twins' Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana at 7:05. The game will be televised on KSTW (Channel 11). Buy tickets.......