Jenrry Mejia's solid pitching, Ruben Tejada's strong defense key Mets' win  —  Theirs is an offense constantly under duress.  But the Mets, wearing camouflage on one of their “military nights” and disguising their punch by stranding nine runners, managed to prevail Monday night against the Cardinals, 2-0.

Baseball games still take too long.  Blame the Red Sox.  —  It's a rite of spring.  Baseball arrives and everyone notices that baseball games are getting longer and longer.  —  Carl Bialik at Nate Silver's Fivethirtyeight.com site crunched the numbers and, sure enough, the trend is continuing.

Fernandez strikes out 14 as Marlins shut out Braves  —  ATLANTA — Jose Fernandez matched his career high with 14 strikeouts in eight innings and combined with Steve Cishek on a three-hitter as the Miami Marlins shut out the Atlanta Braves 1-0 on Tuesday night.

MLB suspends Gomez, Maldonado, others  —  Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Carlos Gomez and catcher Martin Maldonado both were suspended by Major League Baseball for their roles in Sunday's benches-clearing skirmish with the Pittsburgh Pirates.  —  Gomez, who helped start the incident …

Pujols goes yard twice to join 500 HR club  —  WASHINGTON — Albert Pujols hit the 500th home run of his career Tuesday night, becoming the 26th player in major league history to reach that milestone.  —  The Los Angeles Angels' first baseman did it with a pair of shots off Washington …

Harvey off Twitter after controversial tweet  —  NEW YORK — Matt Harvey's Twitter account is outta here.  —  Harvey's final tweet Tuesday created a stir.  —  On the six-month anniversary of his Tommy John procedure, the rehabbing New York Mets ace tweeted “I can't believe it's …

Blue Jays Claim Darin Mastroianni, Designate Kenny Wilson  —  The Blue Jays have claimed outfielder Darin Mastroianni off waivers from the Twins, the club announced via press release.  To make room on the 40-man roster, Toronto designated fellow outfielder Kenny Wilson for assignment.

Why doesn't Big Papi exploit the infield shift by bunting?  —  Let's do some back of the envelope math.  Whom would you rather have at the plate?  Miguel Cabrera in all of his 2013 glory, or David Ortiz ... bunting?  —  After doing some very extensive mathematical research …

Hellweg has torn elbow ligament  —  Right-hander Johnny Hellweg, the Brewers' No. 7 prospect according to MLB.com, was diagnosed today with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, an injury that often requires so-called Tommy John surgery and a 12-18 month rehabilitation.

Surgery recommended for Ivan Nova  —  Ivan Nova's season appears to be over.  The Yankees right-hander has been advised to have Tommy John surgery to repair a partially torn right ulnar collateral ligament.  —  Nova was examined on Tuesday by team physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad …

Jays' Dickey takes ball in opener with Orioles  —  The Sports Network  —  R.A. Dickey will try to solve his control problems tonight when the Toronto Blue Jays begin a three-game series with the Baltimore Orioles.  —  Dickey is 1-3 with a 6.26 earned run average through four starts this season, walking 15 in 23 innings.

Nationals manager Williams doesn't have team focused on details yet  —  Wasn't the Nationals' change in managers supposed to solve the problem?  —  Davey Johnson was too laid-back, so here came the intense Matt Williams, ready to snap the team to attention.  —  The Nats would be disciplined.