Lo Duca may catch tomorrow

VIERA, Fla. — How antsy is Paul Lo Duca to start playing in spring training games? The Washington Nationals catcher, who is close to returning from offseason knee surgery, showed up at Space Coast Stadium yesterday at 7:30 a.m. for a 7 p.m. ballgame.

“No one was here,” he said. “I was waiting in my car for someone to open it up.”

Lo Duca’s long wait is almost over. He got two at-bats in yesterday morning’s accelerated minor league camp game and picked up two hits off top pitching prospect Garrett Mock. He’s scheduled to play in minor league camp again today and then make his Grapefruit League debut behind the plate tomorrow against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“I feel great,” he said. “Maybe this knee [surgery] was a blessing in disguise. My legs are strong. I’ve been working hard. And I’m ready.”

Since suffering a left meniscus tear while working out in January, Lo Duca has been forced to watch while his new teammates got themselves into shape. All along, he was shooting for a March 15 return to the lineup, and it appears he will hit that date exactly.

Lo Duca said he’s not worried about getting his swing down. At this point, he’s more concerned about building up the stamina to catch a full nine innings.

But he won’t take things easy when he returns to the field tomorrow.

“I’m not wearing a knee brace,” he said. “I’m just going to let it go. I’m doing everything. I’m not trying to protect it. I’m a firm believer [if] you protect things, it ends up being a little fragile. I want to be able to play the way I did before that, jumping around, doing all that. Knock on wood, it feels good.”

Redding back in form

After surrendering five runs in three innings last week to the Houston Astros, Tim Redding said he would need to try to “flush” that poor outing out of his system in time for his next start.

He didn’t have much trouble doing just that.

Redding dominated the Florida Marlins last night, tossing five shutout innings and allowing just one single with one walk at Space Coast Stadium.

“Five days from Saturday to here felt like a month,” Redding said. “It wasn’t so much that I was dwelling on the last outing, but the way I was throwing, I knew I was better this spring than what the outcome was.”

The 30-year-old right-hander further made his case for a spot in the Opening Day rotation. He hasn’t allowed a run in two of his three spring training starts and last night struck out four.

“He’s done everything we were expecting him to do,” manager Manny Acta said.

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