Fabulous Freddy!

Freddy Sanchez knocked in all three of the Pirate runs and each of them were needed to help Pittsburgh escape with a 3-2 win over the visiting Atlanta Braves.
Freddy's seventh inning double scored Adam LaRoche and Xavier Nady in wiping out a 1-0 Braves lead and after the Bucco bullpen allowed Atlanta to tie the game in the 8th ,was at the plate in the bottom of the ninth with a chance to win the game.
Sanchez's single up the middle easily scored Brian Bixler from third and gave the Bucco brigade their fourth victory in a row with all of them coming at PNC Park.
John Grabow earned the win (2-1) in pitching a scoreless ninth,but Ian Snell got a no decision after Damaso Marte and Tyler Yates combined to lose the lead in the 8th.
Snell allowed just 1 run and 2 hits over his seven innings of work and as expected,both hits were allowed to Brian McCann.
Long time readers may recall that McCann owns Snell going back to last year.
Oh,well at least none of his hits left the ballpark.
Snell struck out 5,but walked 6 and continued a worrisome trend of control problems from the Pirate starters,with the arguable exception of Paul Maholm.
Something that I will be keeping an eye for sure over the next few weeks.
The series continues tonight at 7,weather permitting.

Pitching Matchup
Atlanta:Chuck James (2-1 7.62 ERA) at Pittsburgh:Tom Gorzelanny (2-3 6.91 ERA) 7:05

Bullpen Notes
Tom Gorzelanny makes his first start after skipping a start due to back problems.
I would be far from surprised that his back problems are more like elbow problems,but I have no proof of that.
However,the sudden lack of command from Gorzelanny raises a few red flags.

Battlin Bob sends us this note on Maple bats.
We had a recent discussion on how it seemed that bats were breaking more often,flying farther and snapping in jagged pieces more than it used be and it seems that we are not the only ones noticing.
This is an issue that needs to taken care as soon as reasonably possible,even it if bans Maple bats by the 2010 season in order to have a full supply of Ash bats ready to go.

Those of you waiting for the one fight that might mean anything in the Heavyweight division-a unification rematch between IBF Champ Wladimir Klitschko and WBC Titlist Samuel Peter can wait a while.
Former champ Vitali Klitschko is going to attempt (again) to emerge from retirement and claim his old belt from Peter on a unannounced date in the fall.
Vitali retired due to a constant injury problem and has watched two comeback bouts go by to the injury bug,so we will believe it when they are in the ring.

Until tomorrow.

Photo Credit
Sanchez:John Heller-AP Photo