Day 26 of Pirates spring training: news and notes

The Pirates will face the Tampa Bay Rays (for the fifth time this spring) in Port Charlotte, Fla,, at 1:05 today. You can listen to the game on mlb.com.

James McDonald will get the start for the Bucs against the Rays’ Wade Davis.

• One of Ronny Cedeno’s goals for the 2011 season is to cut down on the strikeouts (Cedeno struck out 106 times in 468 at-bats last year).

“I feel good — much better,” Cedeno said. “Last year was a bad year. I have a new year, and I need to make an adjustment. I need to put the ball in play, and get in the right position to hit.”

• Injury updates:

Joe Beimel and Scott Olsen will remain in Bradenton, Fla., as the team heads to Port Charlotte today for the game against the Rays. They will both throw batting practice; Beimel (20 pitches), Olsen (35 pitches). This marks Olsen’s second batting practice session this week and should be cleared to pitch in a game soon.

Joe Beimel is scheduled to make his spring debut on Monday against the Baltimore Orioles.

Jose Ascanio (right elbow) threw a successful side session on Wednesday and is scheduled to throw another on Friday.

Brian Friday (left hand) and Josh Rodriguez (right quadricep) are said to be recovering and are listed as day-to-day.

• Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune reports that Tyler Yates family have not been effected by the Tsunami this am (Yates is from Hawaii). “Tyler Yates said he expects his home, family in Hawaii are safe from tsunami”
• Manager Clint Hurdle has been focusing a lot on aggressive base running this spring. Can the other teams expect most of the players to run? Matt Diaz, who stole 12 bases in 2009, says you shouldn’t count him out.

  “I’ll sneak it in there. I don’t want it out there because they see a short, fat, white guy on first and they really don’t pay too close of attention. So, [I'll] try to steal, stealth wise. Try to lull them to sleep,”

• Ryan Doumit was reevaluated this morning and has been diagnosed with a right oblique strain. Doumit should be sidelined for a few days. He’s doing light exercise, but is not cleared to swing a bat.
• Ohlendorf will pitch the first four innings on Saturday in a split-squad game against the Phillies. Those scheduled to follow are Jose Veras (one or two innings), Aaron Thompson (two) and Tyler Yates (one).

Jeff Locke will start in the other game against the Blue Jays. He will pitch the first two innings followed by Sean Gallagher (two or three innings), Daniel McCutchen (two), Ramon Aguero (one) and Mike Crotta (two or three).

Pirates

Lineup: Tabata LF, Jones RF, McCutchen CF, Alvarez 3B, Walker 2B, Fields 1B, Cedeno SS, Brown C, McDonald P

Pitchers: McDonald (four innings), Burres (two), Moskos, Thomas, Leroux

Rays

Lineup: Ramirez DH, Rodriguez 2B, Kotchman 1B, Shoppach C, Lopez 3B, Johnson SS, Jennings CF, Fuld LF, Vogt RF

Pitchers: Davis, Hellickson, Farnsworth, Peralta, Russell, Cobb