Zach Duke attempts to grab a spot in the Pirates rotation as he faces the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies today in Clearwater. (Photo courtesy of Rumbunter.com)

The Philadelphia Phillies are 4-8 this spring.  They have lost four straight games and are 1-6 in their last seven.

Zach Duke (6IP, 3.00ERA, 0BB, 3K) will start today against the Philadelphia Phillies’ Joe Blanton (6IP 3.60ERA) in Clearwater.  Duke needs a good showing as the Pirates are looking to solidfy their rotation heading into the season.

Daniel McCutchen (5IP, 5.40ERA, 3BB, 0K), Matt Capps (5IP, 0.00ERA, 3BB, 5K), Brian Slocum (1IP, 27.00ERA, 0BB, 2HBP, 1K) and Dave Davidson (1IP, 0.00ERA) will also take the hill.  Davidson is back from the World Baseball Classic where he threw one inning. 

My Phillie friends are in Clearwater and are promising us some pics.  They tell us to keep an eye on John Mayberry Jr.  The outfielder is having a solid spring with three homers and is slugging at a .618 clip.  Hitting coach Milt Thompson has been throwing his pixie dust on Mayberry Jr. and it is producing results.

The Phillies lineup seems full with left handed bats.  Sound familiar?  The right handed candidates are…Marcus Giles (.235 with one double, one RBI and five stolen bases in 17 Grapefruit League at-bats), Miguel Cairo (.318 with one double, two home runs and three RBIs in 22 at-bats) and Pablo Ozuna (.368 with one homer and two RBIs in 19 at-bats); and prospects Jason Donald (.355 with two doubles and two RBIs in 31 at-bats) and the wild card, John Mayberry Jr. (.265 with three doubles, three home runs and 10 RBIs in 34 at-bats).  

The word seems to be that Mayberry Jr would be better playing everyday in AAA.  Heh, Pirates fans, we are not the only team that makes these difficult decisions. 

For the Pirates, I would like to see Zach Duke have a solid outing.  Also, maintaing the offense early in games would be a bonus.  If Duke struggles, the door seems to be wide open for the rotation.  And would leave many Pirate faithful scratching their head. 

I do know this, Virguel Vasquez opened some eyes yesterday didn’t he? When you throw three scoreless innings allowing only two baserunners… people notice.  He might be kicking the door in if you listen to Skipper John Russell.  Skip was quoted as saying, ”He (Vasquez) made a couple of mistakes, but when you hit your spots, you can make a couple of mistakes. I thought he threw the ball very well. Overall, using both outings together, he’s shown the ability to attack the zone.” 

I have been working on more Vasquez information and promise you will see it in a seperate post.

It was disturbing to watch Gorzy today.  The others have little chance on making the team, but Gorzy is pitching for a rotation spot.  Some would say he is pitching his way off the rotation.

Gorzelany gave up four earned runs on two home runs today. A three run shot by DH Josh Bard (C with Padres last year who hit .202) with nobody out in the first inning and journeyman SS Neil Green launched his solo shot in the second, also with nobody out.

Chris Bootcheck who was having a solid spring came on in the third after Gorzelany faced two batters.  (Bootcheck had gone six innings without giving up a run and allowed only three hits.)  Bootcheck allowed a grand slam to Brad Wilkerson.  That Wilkerson, you know the one that OF picked up from the Jays this year after hitting .216?

Bright side for Bootcheck? He recorded all three outs in his one inning on the mound via strikeout. 

The Pirates trailed 8-0 when they came to the plate in the bottom half of the third inning.  It looked like the Bucs would have a big inning as Robinzon Diaz doubled,  Jeff Salazar walked, and Nyjer Morgan (who was 2-3 at the plate, but got picked off first base) had his second hit of the game. 

With the core of the lineup coming to the plate, Freddy Sanchez drove in Diaz with a sacrifice, but the bases were left loaded by Nate McClouth on a questionable strike three call.  DH Ryan Doumit drove in Salazer and then with two outs Adam LaRoche drove in the fourth run of the inning as Sox Pitcher Michael James allowed all three of the inherited runners to score. With two Buccos aboard, Jack Wilson (.122)struck out to end the inning.

Tyler Yates ran his scoreless innings streak to five this spring. He retired all three batters he faced in the fourth inning.

The Pirates brought former Indian righthander Brian Slocum to work the fifth inning and he was touched for three runs on four hits in his inning of work.  He also hit two batters including Neil Green (it seemed Green might have looked like one of those Kerrigan dummies as he was also plunked by Gorzy.)

Craig Hansen continued to look strong as he retired all three Sox batters he faced in the sixth inning.  Hansen has 7K, 6IP, 0ER this spring.

In bottom of sixth, Garrett Jones, who was 2 for 2 with three runs scored on the day, walked and then scored on Andrew McCutchen’s two out RBI triple to left center.  McCutchen had a solid day drawing two walks and scoring three runs.  Jose Tabata plated McCutchcen to close the gap to 11-7.

The Pirates youngsters kept  hammering the ball with Tabata having another hit, this one a double in the four run eighth inning when he, Brian Bixler, and then Neil Walker who was 2 for 3 all had key two out RBI with big Neil’s pulling the Pirates to within one at 12-11.  However, Pirate right hander Juan Mateo allowed two more runs in the top of the ninth.

In the bottom of the ninth, Jose Tabata, who must have read the morning post regarding outfielders taking a job, blistered his third hit on the day, another double driving in two runs to allow the Buccos to come all the way back and tie it at 14.  Quite a comeback  in spite of leaving ten runners on base.

The Red Sox didn’t stop scoring as Mateo give up another run in the top of the tenth setting the final at 15-14.

On this day, the Pirates youth proved to be a solid match against the Red Sox.  Another good sign despite our poor pitching effort.

The Pirates season has strong upside.  I thought the Astros would have had a little more for the Bucs yesterday, after Coach Cecil Cooper called a closed door meeting.  Stay positive, good things lie in store for us this year. 

Today’s game against the Sox should be an interesting matchup for the Bucs.  After Ross Ohlendorf (six hits and two runs — one earned — in 3 1/3 innings. He struck out two) threw three plus innings yesterday, will Tom Gorzelany get an extra inning today as well?   Will Bootcheck ever get action earlier in a game against some more formidable bats?

Donnie Veal, a big fan of RumBunter, had a rough day at the yard yesterday.  Ugly line.  But still got the victory.  The big fella will bounce back. 

The offense has been strong all spring and the bullpen has been with exception of about four innings, lights out.  All the buzz about Freddy Sanchez being in great shape is fantastic.   Bombs yesterday by Sanchez, Monroe, and Garrett Jones again.  Jones has performed well and is making the most of the opportunity this spring. 

From Dejan at Post Gazette, Neal Huntington, on Moss’ status: ”At this time, there’s no indication of ligament damage,” Neal Huntington said. “We’re sending him to Pittsburgh just to be totally cautious about that.” 

This is key, too: Moss was hurt while trying to make a diving catch Saturday when the ball bounced up off the grass and struck his thumb. Initially, it was thought that the ball hit the inside of the thumb, but the X-rays showed it was the outside.

The Red Sox blew out the World Champion Tampa Bay Rays yesterday 8-2 to revenge the loss on Saturday when they surrended nine unearned runs in a 15-7 loss to the Rays. 

On the hill today is Lefty Jon Lester, who is reportedly on the verge of signing a five-year contract extension for the Red Sox in today’s 1:05 p.m. game in Bradenton. Takashi Saito, Hideki Okajima and Manny Delcarmen will get work out of the bullpen.

The Bucs counter today with lefty Tom Gorzelanny followed by Sean Burnett, Craig Hansen, Tyler Yates, Brian Slocum and Chris Bootcheck.