New York Yankees: Jeff Weaver has won the three-way competition to be the team's fifth starter. Manager Joe Torre announced the decision after New York beat the Phillies 5-0.

The decision means Cuban right-hander Jose Contreras, who signed a $32 million, four-year free agent contract during the offseason, will begin the regular season in the bullpen.

"He felt it could be a benefit for him to get this feet wet,'' Torre said of Contreras. "I'm more than happy the way Jose took it. He was disappointed, but has no hesitation to do anything for the club.''

Weaver emerged early on as the front-runner. He is 2-1 with 1.35 ERA in five games. Acquired from Detroit last summer, he led the AL with three shutouts last year despite making few starts after the trade.

San Francisco Giants: Barry Bonds hit two more homers, giving him nine for the spring, to lead the Giants to a 10-6 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday.

	Bonds

After a two-out single by Pedro Feliz in the top of the first inning, Bonds hit an 0-1 fastball from Brewers right-hander Ruben Quevedo over a walkway beyond the right-field fence -- a distance of about 475 feet.

J.T. Snow hit Quevedo's next pitch for a homer, giving the Giants a 3-0 lead.

The Brewers tied the game with three first-inning runs against lefty Kirk Reuter, but Bonds snatched the lead back in the third. With two outs and nobody on, he hit a 3-2 curveball over the wall in right.

Bonds left the game after his second at-bat. In 18 games this spring, he is batting .410 (16-for-39) with nine homers and 18 RBI.

Minnesota Twins: Kenny Rogers held Cincinnati's slumping offense to two hits in five innings during his Minnesota debut, and the Twins beat the Reds 2-1 on Tuesday.

Rogers, 38, signed a $2 million, one-year contract on March 13 and had a spot in the rotation reserved. The left-hander pitched in two minor league games before appearing with the Twins for the first time on Tuesday.

He held Cincinnati to a pair of singles and two walks in five innings, striking out two. Rogers threw all of his pitches and looked sharp the first time he faced major leaguers.

"We knew when we signed him that he had worked so hard," pitching coach Rick Anderson said. "He wasn't just sitting around saying, 'Am I going to pitch?' He was in such good shape.

"We were real excited to see what we did today."

Rogers had been looking forward to his first appearance against major leaguers.

"I know that was something that was needed," he said. "Not that the other work is not quality, but it's not the same. When you get into a 'A' game, you get the extra adrenalin and nervousness. It's good, so you can get adjusted to when the season starts."

Houston Astros: Jeff Kent returned from a five-game absence Tuesday and had an RBI single, a fielding error and nearly a throwing miscue in Houston's 7-6 win over the Indians on Tuesday.

Kent was out with a strained right forearm, and he was a bit rusty in his first game back. But he offset his sloppiness in the field with an RBI single in the third off Jason Bere (2-2), and ended his day by striking out to end the fifth.

Craig Biggio homered for the Astros. Ellis Burks and Shane Spencer homered for the Indians, who got 10 hits off Brian Moehler (2-1) in five innings.

Cleveland's Casey Blake went 3-for-5, raising his average to .490 (25-for-51). First baseman Travis Hafner is expected to play in Wednesday's game against Montreal after missing the past week with a sprained wrist.

Houston's fifth spot in the rotation has come down to right-hander Jeriome Robertson or Tim Redding. Both will pitch in games on Wednesday.

Anaheim Angels: Jarrod Washburn three five solid innings in his second spring start as the Angels tied the Colorado Rockies 5-5 in 11 innings Tuesday.

Washburn won 18 games for the World Series champion Angels last year, but probably won't pitch until Anaheim's fifth game after spraining his left shoulder during a drill on March 3.

He pitched 1 2/3 innings against Oakland in a game that was rained out on March 16 and threw against minor leaguers on Thursday.

Washburn felt fine after allowing three runs on six hits in five innings against the Rockies, but said he expects to be sore all year.

"I'm actually planning on having discomfort in there for the whole season," Washburn said. "Probably the pain in the joint would disappear in six-to-eight weeks if you didn't do anything, but I'm going to pitching so I think I'm going to be irritating it every five days."

CF Darin Erstad missed his second straight game after experiencing soreness in his surgically repaired right hand.

Arizona Diamondbacks: Rookie John Patterson boosted his chances of making Arizona's starting rotation Tuesday by allowing one run in six innings in the Diamondbacks' 7-4 victory over the Texas Rangers.

The right-hander's shaky spring had left manager Bob Brenly uncertain whether Patterson would start the season with the big league club.

Patterson responded with his best outing of the spring. He scattered eight hits, struck out three and walked one, throwing 99 pitches, 58 of them strikes.

"This is the most comfortable I've been on the mound," he said. "I made a lot of good pitches today. I just relaxed and got the job done."

Brenly wasn't ready to give Patterson the job, but said it was an impressive showing.

"John was commanding all of his pitches real well today," Brenly said. "He threw some great fastballs, some really good curveballs and it looked like he had a good feel for the split today. That's a pitch he started working on relatively late in spring training."

Patterson tore his right thumbnail for the second time in as many starts, but said it didn't affect his pitching.

Oakland Athletics: Center fielder Chris Singleton, who hasn't played since March 14, may miss the season opener next Tuesday against the Seattle Mariners.

	Singleton

Singleton is recovering from having cysts removed from his thyroid last weekend in San Francisco. He has also been troubled by tightness in his right hamstring.

"We have a program laid out for him," A's manager Ken Macha said Tuesday. "We're doing some tests and we'll see how he does with them."

Singleton will play in minor league games Thursday and Friday and will join the A's when they travel to Sacramento on Sunday to play their Triple-A affiliate.

"That's when we'll assess the situation," said Macha, who added the roster will be determined Friday with the exception of Singleton's spot.

Meanwhile, shortstop Miguel Tejada, who has a bruised knee, is on schedule to return to the lineup Wednesday, just in time to face Randy Johnson and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Tejada, who aggravated the injury in a collision with Seattle's Randy Winn on Sunday, started the spring with one hit in 21 at bats but is hitting .643 (9-for-14) over his last five games.

San Diego Padres: Forget for a minute that Jesse Orosco is the oldest player in the major leagues and has been pitching professionally since Jimmy Carter was president.

The Padres can use his help.

Playing in a division loaded with some of baseball's best left-handed hitters, the Padres signed the lefty reliever to an $800,000 contract to come in and face one or two batters per appearance.

This will be Orosco's 24th big league season, and the Padres are his seventh team. He'll turn 46 on April 21, and he's more than twice as old as Padres starters Jake Peavy and Oliver Perez.

And he has no intention of going away anytime soon.

"It's something I enjoy doing," Orosco said. "My arm is very healthy right now. I'm going to keep going until you know, they just say, 'Jesse, you don't have it anymore.'"

Orosco is 85-78 with 142 saves and a 3.04 ERA in 23 big league seasons. He's baseball's all-time leader with 1,187 games pitched and 1,183 relief appearances.

Orosco has kept himself in good shape over the decades. he's been on the disabled list only four times, although all have come in the last three seasons.

St. Louis Cardinals: Brett Tomko pitched six innings of five-hit ball and left-hander Rick Ankiel threw one scoreless inning as St. Louis past Baltimore 5-0 Tuesday.

Ankiel, vying for a spot in the St. Louis bullpen, lowered his ERA this spring from 12.86 to 11.25. He began his outing by throwing three straight balls to John Valentin, including one that sailed behind the hitter. Ankiel then threw two strikes before retiring Valentin on a groundout.

Tomko (3-2, 3.51 ERA) struck out three and walked one in his sixth and final start of the spring. Miguel Cairo hit two run-scoring triples.

Orioles starter Sidney Ponson gave up five runs, four earned, in 6 1/3 innings. He finished the exhibition season 1-1 with a 5.68 ERA.

Cincinnati Reds: Infielder Juan Castro went on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday with a sore knee, reducing the Reds' roster to the 25-man limit for Opening Day.

Castro, who has appeared in 11 games this season, has inflammation in his left knee.

The move signified that the Reds are counting on right-hander Paul Wilson to be the fifth starter. Wilson hasn't appeared in a game with the major league club because of a strained rib cage and hamstring, but pitched four innings of a minor league game on Monday.

Boone: What hot seat?
Bob Boone saw himself mentioned first Tuesday in a newspaper's list of major league managers with jobs at risk.

His reaction? A shrug and a laugh.

The Cincinnati Reds' third-year manager knows he has extremely limited job security heading into the final year of his contract. He chooses to ignore it.

"I may be on the hot seat, but it doesn't feel hot to me," he said. "It's kind of the nature of the game. Certainly when you come into this profession, it's not the most stable means of employment."

There are heavy expectations on the Reds as they move into Great American Ball Park. Fans expect a team capable of its first postseason appearance since 1995, when a tax increase to build the team's new home went on the ballot.

There could be sweeping changes if the inaugural season is a flop. General manager Jim Bowden also is in the final year of his contract.

Boone doesn't dwell on his status or his future and insists he's not concerned about what might happen if things go wrong.

"I've never worried about anything," he said. "I never have my whole life.

"This is a game you have to play relaxed. My goal is to try to keep these guys as relaxed as I can. I try to keep exterior pressures away from them and talk about how you deal with them. I think I have to have my act together on that before I can ask somebody else to do that."

Kansas City Royals: Chris George and three Kansas City relievers limited the Chicago White Sox to six hits and the Royals rallied for two runs in the ninth to win 2-1 Tuesday.

George, who will be the Royals' No. 4 starter, had his best spring outing, allowing one run on four hits over five innings.

"When he came out of the game, he had three pitches working for him," Royals catcher Mike DiFelice said. "That's a good key for success. He was throwing his four-seamer and sinker on the outside corner to get ahead. His changeup was keeping them off balance.

"He did a real good job of mixing up his pitches and getting quick outs."

Boston Red Sox: Relief pitcher Matt White's back injury is more serious than first believed and he could start the season on the disabled list.

White, picked from Cleveland in the winter meeting draft, tweaked an oblique muscle in his back during a game last week against Minnesota and hasn't thrown in a game since.

"We saw a doctor yesterday who told us to back off even what we were doing," manager Grady Little said before the Red Sox's exhibition game Tuesday against Pittsburgh. "It's probably going to involve him starting on the DL."

White is believed to be in the running for one or two final bullpen slots for Little, who has yet to decide whether to carry 11 or 12 pitchers.