Sunday: Bucs Go Down 3-0; Motown Visits w/Cole on the Hill; Notes

Today: The Tigers visit McKechnie Field at 1:05 in another springtime home & home series. Today's match will be on Root Sports, MLB.TV and 93.7 The Fan.

The pitching: Gerrit Cole is slated to work the first two frames. Lined up behind him are Tony Watson, Kelvin Marte, Jim Fuller, Rob Scahill, Wilfredo Boscan, Guido Knudson and AJ Schugel. Matt Boyd opens for Detroit.

I'm backkkkkkkk... (photo Associated Press)

The lineup: Josh Harrison 2B, Jordy Mercer SS, Cutch CF, Starling LF, John Jaso 1B, Gregory Polanco RF, Jason Rogers 3B, Elias Diaz DH, Stew C. The reserves are Adam Frazier, Cole Figueroa, Danny Ortiz, Harold Ramirez, Josh Bell, Willie Garcia, Dan Gamache and Reese McGuire. We're guessing Stewie is behind the dish to provide a little comfort zone for Cole. Also prob getting near cut down date, so the minor league guys may be getting a last spring look.

Yesterday: Aye carumba, the bats were just for show in a 3-0 loss to Motown. Jeff Locke looked OK, retiring 10 Tigers in a row at one point while sitting at 93-94 on his heater, but still gave up a pair in four frames on two hits (one a homer), walk and five whiffs. The batters? Again, they piled up the hits, nine in all, and even had a couple of doubles, but stranded 10. That's unfortunately becoming an MO and the dark side of loading up on OBP guys; you need someone who still believes in counting numbers (like RBI) to bring some of those ducks home. Here's the box score.

• Shaun and Landon Cunningham, the bat swatting father & son duo, will be at today's game as guests of the Pirates. Use a little pine tar, will ya boys?
• Sam Dykstra of MiLB.com has the dope on last year's #1 pick, Kevin Newman.
• Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said Keon Broxton, traded by the Bucs for Jason Rogers, is getting a long look during camp and impressing the staff, but may lose out when the team goes north because unlike the other CF candidates, he has minor league options remaining. 
• One of last year's reclamation projects, RHP Chris Volstad, was released by the Brewers. 
• And a guy who has been a long-time Pirate rumor mill fav, RHP Justin Masterson, plans a showcase in Arizona toward the end of the month. Just sayin...