Seven innings settled at McKechnie Field...

(photo by John Lembo)

- The Pirates lead CC Sabathia and the New York Yankees 4-2 after seven innings here at McKechnie Field, where 6,595 fans helped engineer the ballpark's first sellout of the spring. Sabathia allowed a run in two innings during his first start of the spring.

- Andrew McCutchen, the Pirates' newly-minted $51 million man, went 2-for-3 with 2 RBIs before leaving the game. Worth every penny, I say.

- It's Marauders Fest on the field now, with Robbie Grossman in left field, Starling Marte in center and Eric Fryer behind the plate.

- Bradenton's J.R. Murphy is wearing shinguards in the Yankees dugout but hasn't seen any action. Francisco Cervelli started at catcher for New York and was relieved by 19-year-old prospect Gary Sanchez, who is the youngest Yankee in camp this spring. Sanchez is more than 20 years younger than 42-year-old Mariano Rivera, the Yankees' oldest player in camp. Sanchez is good. He just threw out the fleet-footed Marte, who was trying to steal second in the seventh.

- Cool seeing guys like Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira sign autographs prior to the game. Then again, it's early March and everyone is in a good mood. And in first place.

- My wife did indeed buy me a new Brita water bottle, and it's sitting here next to me, filled to the brim with soon-to-be filtered water. I arrived this morning just in time to see a couple of Pirates employees get my old one down from the net above home plate by chucking a baseball at it. No idea what they did with it. But if the Pirates host a Brita Water Bottle giveaway day sometime this spring, you know who to thank.