Wednesday: Bosox Visit; Rainout Loss Yesterday; Lineup, Pitching, Notes

Today: It's the last home game of the spring; it's almost showtime. The Bucs host the Bosox at 1:05 to close out McKechnie Field's spring schedule. The game will be on Root Sports and MLB.TV; no radio.

The pitching: Jon Niese answers today's bell; David Price climbs the hill for Boston. The other pitchers for Pittsburgh are TBA (EDIT - Cory Luebke & AJ Schugel will follow).

The lineup: Josh Harrison 2B, Cutch CF, Jason Rogers 3B, Starling Marte LF, Gregory Polanco RF, S-Rod SS, Stew C, P-Flo 3B, Niese P. Good to see Gregory back while Jordy still has an eye infection.

Yesterday: Steven Brault, meet the Yankees *ouch* After a 1-2-3 opening inning, he gave up a three-spot in the second, thanks mucho to a two-run blast by Carlos Beltran (in justice, it was raining at the time; maybe Brault isn't a mudder). The Bronx Bombers tacked on a couple of more in the third.

Jose Osuna's two-out, two-run knock made it 5-2 after four. Arquie tossed a quiet frame before Jake Stalling's fifth frame bomb cut the lead to two. Starling's single plated Erich Weiss, running for Josh (who had a double and triple), to get it close but that was it. After four straight innings of rain, the tarps went down & stayed down, making the Yankees 5-4 winners in 4-1/2 frames.

Also getting his work in was Jeff Locke, who threw six innings/99 pitches in a sim game against a lineup of Bucco AAA players at Pirate City yesterday, with the outs/runners situations being determined by Ray Searage. Afterward, as a rainstorm approached, Jeff went and tossed a bit more in the bullpen to make sure he got his 100+ pitches in for the outing.

• The Pirate segment of "Thirty Clubs in Thirty Days" will be on the MLB Network tonight at 7PM. 
• MiLB's Alex Craft looks at Pittsburgh's most intriguing prospects.
• Don Kelly was released by the Marlins.