Pirates Pounded; Take On Rays, Lineup & Notes

The Charlies - Morton and Leesman - got beat up royally yesterday by Houston 14-2. So far, the tweak in Ground Chuck's delivery doesn't look like it's clicked, so we'll see what Ray Searage pulls out the hat with just a couple of weeks left in camp. Morton himself said after the game that he's doing too much thinking (about mechanics) rather than pitching. But it does show why having some depth behind the rotation (we're looking at you, Jeff Locke) is so key. Jordy Mercer, who has had a pretty good spring (.294) homered while Pedro brought home the other run, plating Gregory Polanco.

Pedro - 2014 Topps Triple threat series

Today's Game: The Bucs travel to Port Charlotte today for a 1:05 game against the Tampa Bay Rays, with AJ on the mound. The game can be heard on webcast from pirates.com.

Today's Lineup: Gorkys Hernandez CF, Neil Walker 2B, Starling Marte LF, Corey Hart RF, Andrew Lambo 1B, Francisco Cervelli C, Sean Rodriguez SS, Brent Morel 3B, AJ P.
Today's Bench: Jaff Decker, Wilkins Castillo, Jose Tabata, Steve Lombardozzi, Sebastian Valle, Pedro Florimon, Deibinson Romero, Gustav Nunez.
Today's Pitching: Bobby LaFromboise, Arquimedes Caminero, Deolis Guerra, Brad Lincoln and three minor-league camp reserves.

Role reversal - Lambo is playing first and Hart gets his first outing in right. We also notice that Cervelli has moved down in the lineup and The Kid moved up. 

• Mark Melancon, Tony Watson and Antonio Bastardo worked a minor league game yesterday against the Phils' AAA squad. They all tossed a scoreless frame after working Saturday; the Bucs are breaking them into back-to-back outings at this point of camp.
• Cutch has gone from day-to-day to "ready for Opening Day" status. The Pirates are smart to let him get to 100% if not entirely forthcoming with their injury reports. Let's hope Andrew gets the last week of camp in; that should be all he needs.