Sunday, March 19, 2017

Sunday: Toronto at Pirates - Cole v Mike Bolsinger, Lineup, Notes, Bucs Bomb Phils

Today: The Blue Jays come to town. The game starts at 1:05 at LECOM Park in Bradenton. It will be webcast (audio) by pirates.com.

Lineup: Alen Hanson LF, Jordy Mercer SS, Fran Cervelli C, David Freese 1B, Eric Wood 3B, Joey Terdoslavich RF, Gift Ngoepe 2B, Danny Ortiz CF & Gerrit Cole P. Today is the first leadoff look we've seen given to Alen Hanson who continues to jitterbug all over the field.

Freeser will man first base today (Photo Dave Arrigo/Pirates)

Pitchers: Gerrit Cole, Jared Hughes, Antonio Bastardo, Tony Watson & Daniel Hudson. Hughes is the only arm today still looking for its camp mojo.

Yesterday's Game: The Bucs kept rolling with a 13-8 slugfest win over the Phils. Tyler Glasnow authored a big-league outing yesterday (four IP, one run, four hits, two walks, five K) showing acceptable command while not allowing the Phil stickmen much solid contact. Steven Brault was shaky today and left with two on and two outs after 2-2/3 IP; his stat line took a big hit when Jared Lakind served up a relief gopher ball to the next hitter. But the attack was more than equal to the task. JJ had two hits, including a homer, three runs scored and four RBI. The Goose chased home a pair while Eury Perez and Elias Diaz added solo shots. Fraze and Gift Ngoepe each had a pair of knocks.

Notes:
  • Ol' Bucco Jose Tabata will be in LF for the Jays this afternoon.
  • Yahoo's Big League Stew sums up the Pirates 2017 prognosis: "The Pirates have the pieces to win. Problem is, so do the other teams around them. The NL Central is tough."
  • A little late but Jason Rogers has been cleared for full baseball activities after injuring his ankle 2-1/2 weeks ago.
Cutch is in the WBC championship round of four (2013 Topps Series 2)
  • The US stayed alive in the WBC with a 6-3 win over the DR; Cutch had a game-icing two-run double. America meets Japan, two-time WBC champ, on Tuesday with the winner going to the title round. El Coffee and Starling will be camp-bound now; Polanco had a dazzling series while Marte, who was hurt for much of the tourney with a bum ankle, not so much.

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