BUC O

Not that I'm not appreciative, but where was that all season, Vicente? Sure, the Pirates anemic (or should that be scurvy dog?) offense helped, but still. We could sure use more of that the rest of the season. Padilla blanked the Bucs for six innings, and Mad Dog, Oogie and Daddy Wags all posted zeroes for an inning apiece to complete the 5-0 shutout. The Braves game was rained out, dropping the wild card deficit to 4.5 games.

Jimmy Rollins' late hand injury forced Manuel to make the move he needs to make permanently and put the Lofton/Michaels platoon in the leadoff spot. Facing lefty Mark Redman, Michaels got the start last night, although his personal liberty is in dire jeopardy after last week's pop-a-cop incident. I also thought it was remarkably prescient of Charlie to put David Bell in the two hole. Bell is killing lefties this season, and with his lack of power he's not doing much good in the seventh spot. As it turned out last night, Michaels and Bell went a combined 1-for-10 with 1 RBI, but I think Charlie has finally arrived at a lineup that will work. Against righties, he should lead off with Lofton and bat Rollins second. Rollins has an almost acceptable .739 OPS batting left-handed. Nobody really fits well in that two spot against righties, to be honest, which is part of the Phillies' problem. Even with Manuel's stubborn insistence on batting Rollins leadoff, the Phils are still fourth in the league in runs. The team ahead of us in third, however, is the team we have to catch, Atlanta, and more runs is always a good thing. Giving up less runs would be even better, but the prospects there aren't good. We're in 12th place in the NL in ERA, and both Florida and Atlanta are giving up close to a run fewer per game than we are.

The Bucs' series culminates tonight with Brett Myers facing the very studly-named 22-year-old Texan Zach Duke. Duke, another lefty, pitched reasonably well in his Major League debut start against Milwaukee, surrendering three runs with 9 K's in seven innings in a 5-3 loss. Duke was rated the Pirates' number one pitching prospect heading into the season by the highly respected minor league guru John Sickels, even ahead of Ian Snell, who they recalled a week earlier, and John Van Benschoten, who debuted last season and blew out his shoulder in spring training. It'll be interesting to see if Bell stays in the two spot even if Rollins plays.