This afternoon in spring training action we have the Houston Astros visiting the Toronto Blue Jays at Dunedin for a 1:05 pm Eastern game start. After taking a road game on Sunday and an off-day yesterday, John Gibbons' Blue Jays will be sporting an almost fully major league lineup today behind starting pitcher Mark Buehrle:
Emilio Bonifacio DH, Melky Cabrera LF, Jose Bautista RF, Adam Lind 1B, J.P. Arencibia C (welcome back!), Colby Rasmus CF, Mark DeRosa 3B, Maicer Izturis 2B, Mike McCoy SS.
They will be facing Astros righty Jordan Lyles. Bo Porter's lineup is also mostly on their 25-man roster (not ashamed that I had to look up many of their first names), despite the two-hour drive from Kissimmee to Dunedin:
Jose Altuve 2B, Brandon Barnes RF, Chris Carter LF, Justin Maxwell CF, Brandon Laird 1B, Jason Castro C, Nate Freiman DH, Matt Dominguez 3B, Marwin Gonzalez SS.
According to Brendan Kennedy (@BKennedyStar), the Blue Jays are planning to give Mark Buehrle five innings, then send out Sergio Santos for one, Esmil Rogers for two, then finish off with an inning from Justin Germano.
Over at Tampa, where the Buffalo Bisons are playing the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, Josh Johnson will get five innings, the recently-returned R.A. Dickey will get two, and Darren Oliver is expected to go for three (are the Jays stretching him out for a possible long relief assignments?). Henry Blanco will be tapped to catch Dickey, as the only Blue Jays catcher who hasn't caught him this spring.