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For Peña, Redding, Nats, No Problems in Houston
The Nationals' Wily Mo Peña makes a triumphant return to the dugout after his home run in the second inning.
(By Dave Einsel -- Associated Press)
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"When you sit on the bench, you're not going to show nobody nothing. When you play every day, it's not the same. Now, you go 0 for 4, and tomorrow, you'll be in the lineup -- versus if you come off the bench one time every week, or one time every two weeks, you have to do something. You have pressure. 'Let me do something to be in the lineup again.' "
Redding may have felt that pressure when he arrived at spring training with the Nationals. The team was holding a casting call for starting pitchers, and though he hadn't made it to the majors since a rocky stint in 2005, Redding took it upon himself to not only make the team, but be an anchor of the staff. Instead, he pitched poorly and ended up in the minors.
"I think he came to spring training just trying to impress everybody to make sure that one of those spots was his," Acta said. "Every outing was like a tryout."
Now, some of the outings are like clinics. Monday, he didn't have the best location of his fastball, but he relied on an effective slider and the double-play ball -- getting one in the first, one in the fifth and another in the sixth. He allowed six singles and three walks, and showed that not only can he win at the major league level, but he can do so without his best stuff.
"Sometimes," Redding said, "it takes a couple of hits before you click on with someone else."
Which is precisely what the Nationals hope they have in Peña. It is, of course, early in his stint here, and the smiles brought on by his homers in consecutive games, something he never did in more than a season-and-a-half in Boston.
But the potential. "One swing of the bat," Young said, and that was shown when -- with one out and runners on second and third in the fifth -- the Astros intentionally walked him.
In his career, Peña has six times as many strikeouts (438) as he does home runs (69). But there are moments like he has had the past two days, moments in which potential and production collide, and it seems like a new home might make a difference.
