Viola, the star left-hander who can depart via free agency at the season's end, has collapsed on the mound when he was supposed to be campaigning.

Mack later described his star left-hander as, "...the atom bomb of baseball long before the atom bomb was discovered."

The Yankees wanted Randy Johnson, Arizona's star left-hander, but he stayed with the Diamondbacks.

But the more Viola, the Mets' star left-hander, spoke of it, the more it had the ring of inevitability.

"The last 48 hours were so crucial that I couldn't sleep," the star left-hander for the Mets said during a conference call from Roosevelt Hospital.

Manager Dave Johnson was so confident that his star left-hander could pitch that he skipped the batting-practice session on the main diamond in the Mets' stadium here.

In his second season with the Brewers, Capuano has blossomed into a star left-hander with a 17-9 record and a 3.55 earned run average.

The star left-hander is playing out the final year of his contract after turning down an offer for an extension of three years and $13 million and had been booed during the 0pening-day introductions.

Tom Lawless hit his first home run in three and a half years on Wednesday night to beat Frank Viola, the Twins' star left-hander.

Still, Herzog was only one run behind when his star left-hander got knocked out in the fifth inning.