My apologies for the intermittent posting recently; apparently I missed a strange bunt call and a couple of weird opinion columns. I'll be at games in Cleveland and Pittsburgh later this week, and I'm preparing to teach a summer class that starts next Monday, so posts will continue to be sporadic for the rest of this week. I'll keep popping my head in whenever I can, though.

The good news today--and it's good news indeed--is that both Ian Snell and Phil Dumatrait both underwent medical tests today (perhaps as part of some crazy 2-for-1 Monday special) and they're both fine. This is important because a serious injury to Snell would be a very tough blow to the Pirates' long-term plans, but also because both Snell and Dumatrait, inconsistent though they both have been, are very important to the Pirates right now. With both of them gone it'd be very tough for the Pirates to get through the first five innings, and even tougher for them to save their bullpen.