Bucs Go Long To Top Rays 7-6; Today's Lineup v Orioles & Notes

AJ Didn't have the greatest of starts, and it was made worse by Brad Lincoln. Burnett went 4-2/3 frames and left with a runner on third. Two walks and two beaned batters later by Lincoln led to a couple more runs before that third out was recorded. But Arquimedes Caminero, Bobby LaFromboise and Deolis Guerra put up zeroes, and the Pirate bats saved the day.

Gorkys Hernandez had three hits, including a homer, Francisco Cervelli (two RBI) went yard and Pedro Florimon dinged one to pull out the win, along with RBI from Andrew Lambo, Starling Marte and Wilkins Castillo, who had a ninth inning knock to put Pittsburgh over the top. It wasn't pretty, but every team needs to win an ugly game every so often.

Today's hero Gorkys Hernandez (photo US Presswire)

Today's Game - The Orioles come to McKechnie today with Radhames Liz getting the starting honors. The game starts at 1:05 and will be streamed by pirates.com.

Today's Lineup - Josh Harrison 3B, Gregory Polanco RF, Cutch CF, Neil Walker DH, Starling Marte LF, Pedro 1B, Jordy Mercer SS, Jung-Ho Kang 2B, Tony Sanchez C.
Today's Bench - Jaff Decker, Gustav Nunez, Deibinson Romero, Andrew LAmbo, Pedro Florimon, Sebastian Valle, Steve Lombardozzi, Jose Tabata, Wilkins Castillo, Sean Rodriguez.
Today's Pitchers - Charlie Leesman, Jared Hughes, Brad Lincoln, Deolis Guerra, Josh Wall.

Pass the ammunition, Cutch is back. For that matter, so is Kang. He was shut down for a little drill work, and instead of competing with Jordy today, he'll man the middle with him. Lincoln and Guerra are making back-to-back appearances from the pen; it's getting to that time of year, and Brad could sure use a bounce-back outing.

• The Bucs are off tomorrow. They'll be back in the saddle Thursday to face the Braves.
• Matt Snyder of CBS Sports has his 2015 Pirate team preview.
• Saint Mary's Joe was released by the Rangers yesterday. The 37-year-old had a 2.20 ERA over 56 appearances with the Mariners last season, but gave up 14 runs (11 earned) in just three spring innings for Texas, including three homers.