The Daily Closer: Can We Panic Yet?

Notes from a day in baseball:

• Help, Superman! Yes, we know it's early; but we thought that it would be fun anyway to go through the five stages of grief with some of our favorite struggling teams, via those who cover them.

‣ Denial. San Francisco Giants (1-5): They christened the season with a 7-0 loss to the Padres and closed a 1-5 homestand with Sunday's 10-4 loss to the Dodgers. The Giants know they need to change their results. They insist they don't need to alter all that much else. "I'm not gonna panic and start moving the lineup back and forth all the time," manager Bruce Bochy said. "I don't want to do that. I want these guys to get settled in." ... "Nobody's panicking. Nobody's worried," outfielder Randy Winn said. "We just have to go out and play like we're capable of." [ SF Gate]

‣ Anger. Houston Astros (1-5): Gotta love Trever Miller for adding the most to our chances of winning by getting the one guy he was asked to face. Worth all of seven-one thousandths of a victory. Congratulations, Mr. Miller, you are at the top of the Delta pledge class. [ Houston Crawfish Boxes]

‣ Bargaining. Baltimore Orioles (2-4): Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone. Erik Bedard gets a chance to get his season in gear after an iffy first start on Opening Day. It happens, you know? And really, I didn't think Bedard was all THAT bad. He never seemed comfortable or in a rhythm, but the two homers he gave up were back-to-back and just two really bad pitches. You have to minimize those, obviously. I'm a real scientist. He'll be fine. I'm not worried about BUH DARD. Go O's! [ Camden Chat]

‣ Depression. Philadelphia Phillies (1-5): Are you getting worried about the Phillies? "Yes" 68.1 percent. (Poll) [ Philadelphia Inquirer]

‣ Acceptance. Washington Nationals (1-6): There is no panic button stashed away inside the home clubhouse at RFK Stadium. No locked box with an abort code inside. No cabinet with a small hammer dangling from it and a message instructing players to "break glass in case of emergency." The Washington Nationals just completed a wretched homestand to open the season, capped by yesterday's 3-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, and anyone not employed by this club is ready to give up on 2007. The Nationals don't care. So what if they just got swept in four by the Diamondbacks to fall to 1-6 for the season? So what if their offense just went through an 0-for-30 stretch with runners in scoring position? So what if not a single Washington pitcher has taken the mound holding a lead in seven games this season? [ Washington ]

• Papi's Home, Kids! And all of a sudden the sun broke out in Boston, as David Ortiz hits two home runs and Curt Schilling got an impressive win; the Red Sox beating the Rangers 3-2. Schilling (1-1) allowed one run and four hits over seven innings with six strikeouts and a walk. He retired his last 10 batters.

• Santana Rocks. Johan Santana allowed one hit over seven scoreless innings to lead the Twins to a 3-1 win over the White Sox in Chicago, where Justin Morneau hit a three-run homer in 31-degree weather.

• Pirates Duke It Out. Freddy Sanchez had two hits and an RBI in his first game since coming off the disabled list, and Zach Duke pitched six shutout innings before faltering in the seventh. The Pirates held on to beat the Reds 6-3. Ken Griffey Jr. moved into 21st place on the career RBI list with 1,610, passing Goose Goslin, who had 1,609.