Pre-Game

-- Charlie Morton faces Florida's Ricky Nolasco at 7:10 PM. The game won't be televised.

-- The lineup: Jose Tabata CF, Matt Diaz LF, Lyle Overbay 1B, Neil Walker 2B, Garrett Jones RF, Pedro Alvarez 3B, Chris Snyder C, Ronny Cedeno SS, Charlie Morton P.

McCutch gets a day off (it's not a blow and not injury related; he was given a leave to attend to personal business) and that earned Matt Diaz a trip to the two hole.

Ah well, it's not like Clint Hurdle has a lot of choices. Still, that's why we would have liked to see a Pedro Ciriaco or Alex Presley on the bench; both have the skill set (ie, they can run) to bat second if duty called.

-- The Pirates signed a pair of relievers to minor-league deals today according to a Matt Eddy (Baseball America) tweet. RHPs Blaine Boyer and Brett Sinkbeil were added to the roster.

Boyer, 29, has gotten into 233 MLB games since 2005 with a 4.81 ERA. He averages 6 K and 4 BB per game, just what the doctor ordered.

Sinkbeil is a bit more of a mystery man. The 26 year-old has all of two MLB innings, earned with Florida last year. He's a converted starter, going to the pen in 2009 at AAA New Orleans. And he got beat up pretty well those two seasons, going 2-8/6.07 ERA and 3-3/5.71 ERA. But he struck out eight batters per nine last year, and the Pirates just can't resist a gaudy K rate.

We understand signing Boyer; the Indy bullpen has been brutal in the early going and he's a vet. And apparently they see something in Sinkbeil. Both are organizational fillers at this point, though Boyer could get a call if the Bucs run through their bullpen sometime this year.

-- Justin Wilson got his first win at Indy, going six scoreless innings and throwing two-hit ball. He walked a pair and struck out four.

-- Jeff Locke threw a nice game for Altoona, too. He had a six-inning one-hitter, and left with runners on the corners in the seventh. The bullpen let him down, but his line still ended up six innings, two runs, three hits, and six Ks.

-- Corey Giger of the Altoona Mirror talked to Tony Beasley, who discussed why the last wave of franchise-saving prospects from the 2004-05 Curve - Jose Bautista, Zach Duke, Ian Snell, Nate McLouth, Chris Duffy, Brad Eldred, Rajai Davis, Ronny Paulino, Tom Gorzelanny and Matt Capps - failed to deliver on their promise.

-- Virgil Vasquez, who pitched in Pittsburgh in 2009, was released by the Angels today; he had been pitching in AAA.