Lo Duca may catch tomorrow

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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.