While I sit in the Philadelphia airport:
-P- John Russell defends his continuing decision to bat Freddy Sanchez second. As you might expect, none of the reasons make any sense, except that of protecting Sanchez's ego.
-P- I missed the game yesterday, but I'm baffled as to how the Bucs can fail to score more than one run on a starter as poor as Jorge de la Rosa. Less baffling is the performance of Yoslan Herrera. Why the Pirates want Herrera to "throw more fastballs" is completely beyond me, since his breaking ball and changeup are pretty good and his fastball is absolutely terrible. I get that he needs to throw it sometimes to set up the other pitches, but a fastball that comes in at 88 MPH and is completely straight just won't work in the majors if you throw it all the time.