Bravos Beat Bucs; 12 Pared From Roster; Lineup & Notes

Neil Walker went 2-for-4 with a double and a HR, Josh Harrison went yard, Jordy Mercer had three knocks and Cutch two more, but it wasn't enough as the Braves beat the Bucs 7-5 yesterday. Atlanta scored twice in the ninth (and had another cut down at home) after going seven innings without scoring. Vance Worley was tagged for five first-inning runs, then adjusted on the fly and blanked the Braves over the next five innings, retiring 13 in a row at one point. His adjustment was just to work away; they were teeing off on pitches on the inside half. Clayton Richard put up a pair of goose eggs before tiring in the ninth and being charged with the Bravo's final tallies.

Josh Harrison has been rockin' steady all spring (2014 Topps series)

Today's Game: The Pirates go to Fort Myers to take on the Twins with Jeff Locke on the hill. Once again the game will be on webcast only at pirates.com.

Today's Lineup: Josh Harrison 3B, Gregory Polanco RF, Starling Marte LF, Tony Sanchez C, Pedro 1B, Jung-Ho Kang SS, Jeff Decker CF, Sean Rodriguez 2B, Locke.
Today's Bench: Andrew Lambo, Pedro Florimon, Wilkins Castillo and a flock of minor league hands.
Today's Pitching: Antonio Bastardo, John Holdzkom, Rob Scahill.

Kang is back in action after a time-out to work on some hitting. Decker is getting some time too; he's a dark horse to break camp, but is putting some pressure on Lambo, who is having another not so memorable spring. So we'll see what the FO reads into Florida's small sample sizes.

• This morning, the Pirates reassigned Deolis Guerra, Gorkys Hernandez, Charlie Leesman, Brad Lincoln, Steve Lombardozzi, Brent Morel, Gustavo Nunez, Deibinson Romero, Jose Tabata, Sebastian Valle & Josh Wall to minor league camp. Bobby LaFromboise was optioned to Indy.
• Stephanie Apstein of SI previews the 2015 Pirates.
• Tyler Waite of Fansided compares the Pirates with the other elite squads in the NL.
• The Sporting News ranks Clint as a Top Ten manager. Interestingly, they have him just behind Lloyd McClendon.
• Ya think Nick Leyva was lost coaching at third base? AJ Cassavell and Paul Casella of Sports on Earth would beg to disagree.
• Monica Gagnier of The Pittsburgh Business Times takes a look at fan value, using the Pirates ticket Cost Per Win as her beacon.