Wilson enjoys time with Rangers

Russell Wilson has enjoyed spending time with the Texas Rangers. Yet the Seattle Seahawks are never far from the young quarterback's mind.

While Wilson sat in the Texas Rangers dugout Monday, fans yelling "Seahawks" filled the spring training stadium.

"I couldn't expect anything less," Wilson said. "The 12th man fans were unbelievable today. They're everywhere. The 12th man fans are out in the outfield, they're on third-base line, first-base line, chanting "Seahawks' the whole way. Hopefully the Dallas fans didn't get too mad."

Wilson threw for 3,357 yards and 26 touchdowns and helped the Seattle Seahawks rout the Denver Broncos 43-8 in the Super Bowl last month.

He also happens to be a pretty good baseball player, drafted three times and hitting .229 with a .350 on-base percentage in 93 games in 2010-11 in the low minors in the Colorado Rockies system. But he's had instant success in the NFL.

"You never say never," Wilson said. "I've always had the dream of playing two sports. If somehow it was a miracle that it could work out, I'd consider it. At the same time, my focus is winning the championship with the Seattle Seahawks and hope to be playing for a long time.

"For me, it only being my second year, yeah I won a Super Bowl and all that, but that's not enough for me. It really isn't. My goal is to be one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game, if not the best. I've got a long ways to go. I make sure I get up earlier than Tom Brady and Drew Brees and they're on the East Coast."

The Rangers picked Wilson for $12,000 in the Rule 5 minor league draft in December. He was in the Rangers' camp Monday, took ground balls in morning drills and brought the Rangers' lineup to the umpires before the game, but did not play in the 6-5 loss to Cleveland.

"How much did I want to play an inning?" Wilson said. "How much did I want to play the whole game is the question."

He spoke at a Rangers' dinner on Sunday night for sponsors, suite holders and players and addressed the minor leaguers Monday night.

He said he would leave Tuesday for Seattle and "turn my focus back to football."

So what is most difficult, hitting a curveball or being hit by a 300-pound defensive end?

"Hitting a curveball," Wilson said. "The ball is so small. It looks like a pea."

Pirates 7, Red Sox 6

Pedro Alvarez and Russell Martin hit two-run homers off Brandon Workman, who started in place of injured Jake Peavy, and Pittsburgh beat the Boston on Monday.

Pittsburgh leadoff batter Starling Marte reached on an infield single in the first that stopped an 0-for-9 start, and Alvarez homered to right off Brandon Workman with two outs. Marte singled in the third and Martin followed with a drive to left, his second homer in two days.

Pirates starter Francisco Liriano strick out three and walked one in two hitless innings.

Mike Carp, trying to win a bench job with the Red Sox, hit a two-run homer against Bryan Morris in the eighth.

Workman gave up five runs and five hits in 2 1-3 innings in place of Peavy, the right-hander who accidentally cut his left index finger with a fishing knife Saturday.

"Just getting ready to go fishing," Peavy said. "I promised my little boy I would take him fishing, so we went to Bass Pro and we bought us some rods and reels that were comboed.

Peavy said he was "trying to cut the wire tie that was holding them together, using the knife with my right hand and holding the rod with my left, and when I broke the wire tie, it struck the knuckle pretty good."

Since Peavy didn't want to disappoint his son they drove to teammate John Lackey's house. But while pulling the knife out of his hand, Peavy said he struck a vein and got a good amount of blood on his shorts.

Peavy said he threw away the shorts at Lackey's house and changed. Lackey told Peavy he should get the wound examined.

Peavy then went fishing and didn't catch anything.

"I couldn't tell my 5-year-old I didn't want to go fishing anymore," Peavy said. "It was his last day here. I couldn't say, "We'll go tomorrow.' It wasn't the biggest deal in the world. Not much we could have done except - the biggest thing was, they were freaking out, thinking I was cleaning fish with the knife."

The 32-year-old Peavy, acquired by Boston last summer, was 4-1 with a 4.04 ERA in 10 starts for the Red Sox last season and 0-1 with a 7.10 ERA in three postseason starts. He received several stitches Sunday to close the gash.

Red Sox manager John Farrell said on Sunday that Peavy will not throw for three days.

Yankees 4, Nationals 2

David Robertson pitched a scoreless fourth inning in his first appearance as the Yankees' new closer in a victory.

Robertson hit his first batter, Danny Espinosa, then induced a double-play grounder by Tyler Moore to shortstop Derek Jeter, who fielded a tough-hop grounder. Robertson is replacing career saves leader Mariano Rivera, who retired after last season.

Jeter went 0 for 3, including a double-play grounder. He is hitless in seven at-bats over three spring training games. The Yankees captain broke an ankle in the 2012 AL championship series and played in just 17 games last season.

Zach Walters hit a solo homer for the Nationals.

Mets 6, Braves 2

Freddy Garcia ran his streak of perfect innings to five in his bid to earn a spot in the Braves' rotation, Mets' top prospect Noah Syndergaard pitched two scoreless innings in his Grapefruit League debut, and New York beat Atlanta.

The 21-year-old Syndergaard struck out leadoff hitter Jason Heyward on a 98 mph fastball and fanned Evan Gattis on three fastballs to start the second. The right-hander allowed just one hit over two scoreless innings.

In contrast, Garcia, 37, used an assortment of mostly slow stuff to retire nine straight Mets, three on strikeouts, after retiring all six Detroit batters he faced while fanning two in the spring opener.

Heyward, Atlanta's right fielder, threw out a runner at the plate to preserve a scoreless fifth inning for closer Craig Kimbrel, but the Mets scored five times off minor leaguers in the ninth for their first spring victory.