First the news: Shane Victorino is still not in the lineup and he was unsure if he'd be making the trip to Tampa Monday. When I dropped by his locker this morning, he looked eager to play.

Check my twitter account twitter.com/ryanlawrence21 for an update after batting practice.

Here is the lineup for the game against the Rays here in Clearwater:

1. Jimmy Rollins, SS
2. Placido Polanco, 3B
3. Chase Utley, 2B
4. Ryan Howard, 1B
5. Raul Ibanez, LF
6. Ben Francisco, CF
7. Domonic Brown, RF
8. Ross Gload, DH
9. Brian Schneider, C

J.A. Happ is pitching. (Remember, friends, that first "A" in J.A. Happ is silent).


Funny thing when I approached Victorino this morning. Ryan Howard overheard the convo of whether Vic would play soon and quipped, "That's OK, he has the same amount of hits as me."

Howard is 0-for-5 thus far in Grapefruit League play.

On the other end of the hitting spectrum, Domonic Brown is wielding a hot bat after the first four exhibition games. He is 5-for-9 (.556).

Brown is making his third straight start this afternoon (as you already saw in the lineup posted above).

For more on Brown - in a story that somehow incorporates Harmon Killebrew and Tim Tebow - check out what I wrote for today's paper on the wunderkid.


Another note on today's game: it marks another homecoming for Pat Burrell. He is scheduled to play in right field.