Expos Find Answers, Reds Have Questions

So much for spring training providing answers.

Montreal started the season with questions, then one more cropped up Thursday when starting pitcher Carlos Perez went on the disabled list because of tendinitis in his shoulder.

In a move more likely to be made at midseason, the Expos summoned double-A pitcher Jose Paniagua to start at Cincinnati, and he pitched five strong innings in a 10-2 victory.

“Great poise. Fearless,” Manager Felipe Alou said after Paniagua gave up four hits and a run in his five innings of work in the rain. “We knew all that. He looked like a man should look when he goes out there in the middle of the diamond.”

The Reds went to Florida seeking solutions to bullpen problems, and it’s clear that the questions have yet to be answered.

Or maybe the answer is just lousy.

The Expos scored 18 runs on 29 hits to win the last two games of the three-game series. Most of the damage was off Cincinnati’s unsettled bullpen: 12 runs, 18 hits and seven runs in seven innings.

“You’re dealing with people who have done it before and been real effective,” Manager Ray Knight said of his relief corps.

“You get down to whether or not this is something that’s just temporary, if it’s something that’s now for real, or [if] part of their game is just struggling and they need to work somewhere else--like triple-A.”

Moises Alou hit a two-run homer in the first inning off losing pitcher Dave Burba, and the Expos’ lead was only 2-1 through five innings until the Reds’ bullpen came into play.

New York 10, St. Louis 9--Brent Mayne’s two-out, ninth-inning pinch single drove in Chris Jones with the winning run for the Mets, who won at New York after blowing a seven-run lead.

St. Louis went ahead, 9-8, on Willie McGee’s RBI single in the top of the ninth inning. The Cardinals had tied the score with five runs in the eighth.

John Franco (1-0) was the winner despite giving up McGee’s single. Dennis Eckersley (0-1), the fifth Cardinal pitcher, was the loser, giving up two hits and two unearned runs in the ninth.

Florida 6, Pittsburgh 2--Gary Sheffield and Greg Colbrunn homered at Miami for the Marlins, who gave Al Leiter a victory in his National League debut after 113 games in the American League.

Leiter, who signed a three-year, $8.6-million contract with Florida, walked four in seven innings, but he gave up only four hits and one run and he singled in his first regular-season at-bat.

The Marlins, who scored only one run in their first two games, got two in the third inning on Sheffield’s homer.

San Francisco 7, Atlanta 1--Allen Watson won his debut for the Giants, slowing down the hard-hitting Braves in Atlanta and pitching the Giants to their first victory of the season.

J.R. Phillips hit a three-run homer during a four-run first inning that sent the Giants over John Smoltz.

The Braves had 25 runs and 25 hits in beating the Giants in the first two games of the year. But Watson limited the Braves to one run on five hits in six innings.

Philadelphia 7, Colorado 4--Rookie Kevin Jordan, normally a second or third baseman but playing first base for the first time because Gregg Jefferies was injured, hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning for the Phillies in their victory at home.

Jefferies tore a ligament in his left thumb while diving into third base on an RBI triple in the first inning. He is expected to be sidelined for at least two months.

Trailing, 4-3, in the fifth inning, Lenny Dykstra doubled with one out, and one out later, Jordan homered.