Dear Ryne Sandberg: Please Stop Abusing Justin De Fratus

It’s been written here several times already this season, but it bears repeating often: manager Ryne Sandberg needs to stop abusing reliever Justin De Fratus. The Phillies, understandably, are short on starting pitching and need their bullpen to pitch in a bit more. They had called up Phillippe Aumont from Triple-A Lehigh Valley to start Friday night against the St. Louis Cardinals, but it didn’t go well: the right-hander threw 105 pitches en route to yielding six runs on five hits and seven walks in four innings.

Sandberg, as he often does, brought De Fratus into the game with the intention of pitching multiple innings. He has gone more than one inning in seven of 31 appearances this season…