Thursday: O's Visit Bradenton, Lineup & Pitchers; Yetserday's Game & Notes

Game: Pittsburgh entertains Baltimore at LECOM Park today. The 1:05 game will be on AT&T SportsNet; no radio today.

Lineup: Adam Frazier (L) 2B, Jonah Davis CF, Corey Dickerson LF, Josh Bell 1B, Fran Cervelli C, Jung Ho Kang 3B, Melky Cabrera RF, Erik Gonzalez SS, Chris Archer P. Starling was a late scratch today; his back was tight.

Pitchers: RHP Chris Archer takes the mound v RHP David Hess. Kyle Crick and Tyler Lyons are next up.

Cuts: The Pirates optioned RHP’s Clay Holmes and Michael Feliz to Indy.

Yesterday’s Game: An odd outing for Big Joe. He tossed three innings surrendering just one hit, but gave up seven raps and three runs in the other two, with 6-of-7 knocks coming with two outs, something that happened a lot today. Michael Feliz gave up another dinger and two runs in his two frames, and the Pirates, held to just three hits of their own, were down 5-0 going into the eighth against the Twins. Then the boys rallied: three singles, two walks, a wild pitch and a sac fly plated four runs to cut the gap to one. Then with two gone and the bases empty in the ninth, four straight singles by Zack Kone, Pablo Reyes, Logan Hill and Colin Moran pushed two more runs across, and Brandon Mauer tossed a 1-2-3 ninth to save the win for Clay Holmes. Nick Burdi continued his strong spring with a zero before that pair while Pablo had three hits, two runs & a RBI and Moran had two rips, a walk & two runs chased home to lead the Bucco batsmen. Nice win for the B-Team.

Notes:

• Jason Rollison of Bucs Dugout looks at the difference between the Bucs projection of SS Erik Gonzalez and the stats (which he caveats as small sample) and sees two different players.
• Good news on the injury front: Gregory should see some minor league game action next week, per MLB.com’s Adam Berry, with quick reports on the other wounded Pirates. Nubyjas Wilborn of the Post Gazette writes that the club wants Gregory to shorten his throwing motion to emphasize accuracy over velocity.
• Matt Joyce, 34, recently released by Cleveland, signed a minor-league deal with the Giants.