The Pittsburgh Lumber Company Rolls into Port Charlotte to Battle Rays

What a great day to be in Port Charlotte! The Pirates

are hitting the hell out of the ball, the Rays have right hander Jeff Niemann on the mound (and they aren’t playing great thus far).  The Red Sox shut out Tampa last night 5-0.

The Rays have so much talent in their pitching staff.  It will be interesting to hear how well their other pitchers do after Niemann departs.

The Pirates lineup has a look of opening day to it, doesn’t it?  They are coming in to town to grab a victory today.  Let’s trust they will get up on them early.

Kevin Correia will get the start for the Bucs, which is always interesting. The Rays lineup the rigthander will face is as follows:
Fuld CF, Pena 1B, Longoria 3B, Scott DH, Molina C, Brignac SS, Feliciano LF, Guyer RF, Rhymes 2B, Niemann RHP

The Pirates pitchers behind Correia will be Justin Wilson, Daniel Moskos, Jared Hughes, Bryan Morris and Doug Slaten.

Can Justin Wilson make this team? He surely needs to bounce back, and today would be a great start. Moskos is right there with him, and might need to impress Hurdle even more than Wilson does.  If either falter Doug Slaten is there… joy.

The bullpen battles are quickly becoming the story out of spring training – – when one considers that Marte isn’t making the big club.  (Maybe Hague can make a story, it certainly would be a great one.  He’s mashing right now.)

Two hard throwers in Hughes and Morris are trying to make a name and will get a shot today. We really like both of them. If only one of them were left handed!

We can picture the sun now.  The bullpen.  All of the gorgeous Rays fans.  And the not so gorgeous ones…damn, we wish we were there so we could ‘hang out’ with the jerks from last year. Remember that?