Pirates Take Regulars South to Battle Red Sox

Today’s Pittsburgh Pirates lineup

Pittsburgh Pirates left-hander Jeff Locke heads to the mound today with one purpose.   Get back on track in the fifth starter power rankings.

The Pirates will load up this morning and make the haul south to battle with the  Red Sox Nation in Fort Myers, Florida.

The game will start at 1:35pm today and will air on MLB Gameday Audio.  For the southpaw Lock it’s an opportunity to avenge the rough start that saw the Red Sox put up three first-inning runs last Friday.  It was a reminder of past Locke starts where he has struggles avoiding a ‘big’ inning.

Locke will have most of the players who will be on the 25-man roster behind him.  Russell Martin is still not catching and unfortunately Michael McKenry will be behind the dish today.  Still, it’s the closest thing to an opening day lineup that we’ve seen this spring.

The roster cuts are coming soon, so look for the starters to start getting a bit more work as camp rolls on.  We would enjoy seeing some offense today from the likes of Travis Snider, it would be cool to also see Cutch and Pedro start heating up a bit.

The lineup in case you can see it above is as follows:

Starling Marte in left

Travis Snider in right

Cutch in center

Pedro at third base

Walker at second

Jones at first

Brandon Inge will be the DH

Mac is behind the plate

Clint Barmes is at short

Getting work on the mound after Jeff Locke will be Phil Irwin, Jonathan Sanchez (gulp), Bryan Morris, Jared Hughes, and Vin Mazarro.

Here is the RumBunter Pittsburgh Pirates Fifth Starter Power Rankings