Pirates Kiss Sister In 1-1 Tie; Today's Lineups & Notes

Pitching continues to outpace the hitting so far in the Grapefruit League as Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay played to 1-1, 10 inning tie yesterday. AJ and Nick Kingham each tossed a pair of scoreless innings. The teams combined for 18 hits, and the Bucs even had first-and-third, no outs in the tenth, but scoring runs proved problematic. Elias Diaz went 0-for-2 at the plate, but picked off one runner and threw out another trying to steal, so his defense looks big league in his first camp.

Elias Diaz (Photo: Arizona Fall League via MiLB.com)

Today's Game: The Pirates return to Dunedin to face the Blue Jays. The two teams split earlier in the week. The game begins at 1:07 PM with Casey Sadler (0-1, 7.84) taking on Aaron Sanchez (2-2, 1.09). It will be aired by 93.7 The Fan. For you early birds, MLB Network will show a replay at 6AM Monday. Lotsa luck with that after springing ahead!

The Lineup: Steve Lombardozzi 2B, Francisco Cervelli C, Greogory Polanco RF, Andrew Lambo DH, Sean Rodriguez 3B, Jaff Decker CF, Jose Tabata LF, Brent Morel 1B, Gift Ngoepe SS.
The Bench: Alen Hanson, Mel Rojas Jr., Elias Diaz, Gorkys Hernandez, Keon Braxton, Gustavo Nunez, Wilkins Castillo, Deibinson Romero, Justin Sellers, Sebastian Valle, Willy Garcia.
The Pitchers: Bobby LaFromboise, Jeremy Bleich, Stolmy Pimentel, John Holdzkom, Deolis Guerra, Josh Wall.

The Pirates just don't go for defensively responsible catchers, but guys that are pretty athletic, too. Cervelli was an infielder in his prep days before donning the tools, like Russ Martin was, and also like Russ, Clint has no qualms about batting him high in the order.

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• Neal Huntington explained the Travis Snider trade on yesterday's TribLIVE radio show, saying that they didn't foresee a spot for Travis after this season; he was out of options, so moving him now gave them some roster flexibility, and finally that they believe the young lefties they got back have big league potential as reported by Charlie Wilmouth of MLBTR.
• The Pirates are being cautious with Josh Harrison. He hasn't played since rolling his ankle on Wednesday. Both he and Corey Hart, who cut his foot, are slated to return to action tomorrow against the Twins. 
• The Bucs are playing two tomorrow with a split squad, and Jung-Ho Kang is penciled in to make his first start at the hot corner in one of the contests.
• Rob Biertempfel of the Trib describes how the Pirates live by the fastball, both on the hill and at the dish.
• Brad Lincoln takes camp seriously - at least the camping part. He and his wife are staying in a trailer in a RV park during spring training, per Tom Singer of MLB.com.