Worth noting

• Ten days after being clipped on the back of his left thigh by a Troy Tulowitzki comebacker, reliever Bryan Morris still sported a fat ice pack on his leg.

"After a while, the blood there thickened and stayed in the same spot. It took a couple of days of treatments to get better," said Morris, who never missed any mound time. "As long as I can throw the ball, I'm not laying off."

• The Bucs clearly intend to have Gerrit Cole skip his next start, to conserve some innings, but won't make that determination until seeing how Jeff Locke on Thursday and Charlie Morton on Friday fare in their starts.

"We're still formatting our plans for after the [Monday] off-day. We want to get through the next two outings, to see where we stand," Hurdle said.

Inference: If the Pirates have no need for long reliever Jeanmar Gomez, he'll take Cole's turn in Tuesday's home opener against the Brewers.