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-P- The Nationals have signed Mike Gonzalez to a minor-league deal. He and Oliver Perez were the last two significant lefty relievers remaining on the free-agent market, which is funny, since they were pretty much the two pitchers worth watching on the 2004 Pirates. Perez had serious gas for a lefty, and a really good breaking ball, and the Pirates would remove him from the game and replace him with ... another hard-throwing lefty with a really good breaking ball! Not fun if you're, say, Adam Dunn, or Jim Edmonds.
The Orioles appear likely to sign Johan Santana, who the Pirates had been scouting.
-P- The Pirates defeated the Red Sox 7-6 yesterday. Pedro Alvarez went 2-for-3 with a homer, and Andrew McCutchen and Starling Marte also each had two hits. Which must mean the Pirates are in midseason form already. Francisco Liriano started and pitched two scoreless innings.