Unofficially, the Braves are pinning a lot on right-hander Derek Lowe, who got the honor of starting the first game in Philadelphia and also got the honor of pitching the home opener. Technically, that was to keep Lowe on his regular schedule; the Braves' first game was moved to April 6 from April 5 to accommodate ESPN, which gave the team an off day April 6 in addition to the previously scheduled off day Thursday.

Lowe came through in his first assignment, inducing 13 groundball outs over eight shut-out innings. His second outing was not as over-powering, but it was cut short by a two-hour rain delay.

Right-hander Kenshin Kawakami was the beneficiary, if you could call it that, of that rotation tinkering. His first scheduled start of the season comes Saturday vs. the Nationals. His last start -- a disastrous outing in which he walked seven (one intentional) in 2.2 innings -- was the Braves' final exhibition game of the season.

Because Kawakami is accustomed to pitching in a six-man rotation, he was the likely candidate for the long layoff. But the delay also means suspense is building from the formidable contingent of Japanese media for his official debut. Kawakami has not faced this kind of scrutiny in his career.

"There is some pressure," he says, "but I'm going to have to just get through it and pitch well."

His last time out, Kawakami's curveball just wasn't breaking. He'll have to have control of that to succeed, even against the Nationals.

BRAVES 6, NATIONALS 5 (10 innings): After a two-hour rain and hail delay, the Braves bullpen blew another lead. At least this one was only 3-1. The Nationals kept loading the bases but couldn't cash in. Rookie Jordan Schafer came through again with his bat and then with his speed, and 2B Kelly Johnson drove him in with the winning run.