Good morning from Bright House Field in Clearwater, Florida.
- The Pirates will face the the Philadelphia Phillies at 1:05 today. Righty Chris Resop will start for the Bucs (no, that is not a typo) against lefty Cliff Lee.
- The decision to start Resop today was to get the relievers more work, and to build up Right-hander Jeff Karsten’s pitch count. He is scheduled to pitch in a minor league game at Pirate City today.
“You take these opportunities where you’re going to jump their pitch counts up,” Pirates Manager Clint Hurdle said. “It best just to it in that kind of environment like we did with [Kevin] Correia [Monday]. They’re going to get their pitches. They’re going to get their 100 pitches. It’s not all result oriented. They can work on somethings, and then next time out they can go ahead and face competition once they get that stretched out feeling underneath them.”
- Also at Pirate City today, righty A.J. Burnett threw a simulated game. Burnett threw 48 pitches over two innings.
- Resop is making his sixth appearance of the spring today. He has posted a 3.00 ERA over his six 6.0 innings during Grapefruit League action.
- Following Resop today is Joel Hanrahan, Jared Hughes and Ryota Igarashi.
- Pirates lineup vs. Phillies:
Alex Presley 7
Josh Harrison 6
Jose Tabata 9
Andrew McCutchen 8
Casey McGehee 3
Yamaico Navarro 4
Pedro Alvarez 5
Matt Hague DH
Michael McKenry 2
- Extras on the travel roster: Tim Alderson (minors), Ryan Beckman (minors), Jose Diaz (minors), Michael Dubee (minors), Kris Johnson (minors), Brian Tallet (minors), Charlie Cutler (minors), Jake Fox, Eric Fryer, Nick Evans, Garrett Jones, Chris Lashmet (minors), Gregory Picart (minors), Kirk Singer (minors), Nate McLouth, Gavi Nivar (minors), Luis Urena (minors).
- Phillies lineup: Shane Victorino 8, Placido Polanco 5, Hunter Pence 9, Jim Thome 3, Laynce Nix 7, Pete Orr 6, Brian Schneider 2, Freddy Galvis 4, Cliff Lee 1
- The Pirates and Phillies are meeting today for the fourth time this spring. They are scheduled to meet again next Monday and Tuesday in Philadelphia for the exhibition series before Opening Day kicks off on April 5.
- The Bucs will face the Tampa Bay Rays in Port Charlotte at 7:05 PM. Right-hander Charlie Morton will start against lefty David Price. Evan Meek and Chris Leroux will follow in relief.
