In the hours before a baseball game, a couple weeks into a baseball season, one manager, this one of the Los Angeles Dodgers, was flossing buoyancy from the teeth of what was about to become his eighth loss in 12 games. The other manager, he of the Arizona Diamondbacks, shrugged a lot and grinned and admitted, under relentless questioning, to be "pleased" with what soon would be his 10th win in 13 games.