After a bus ride to Jupiter to take on the Marlins, a ride in which they didn’t get lost this year, the Boston Red Sox returned back to Ft. Myers to get ready for a Grapefruit League matchup with the Pittsburgh Pirates at City of Palms Park. Unfortunately for the minions of the Red Sox, the game won’t be available to listen to as neither the Sox or Pirates radio networks are broadcasting the game. Hopefully Extra Bases or the GoldBlog provides us with some updates.

Kyle Synder felt good after his outing yesterday in which he gave up two hits in 3 innings of work in the loss against the Marlins.

“It was nice to get out there and stretch out and try to get a rhythm,” said Snyder, who pitched 46 games in relief last summer. “I felt good with my fastball and my body is starting to accept longer innings.”

It’s definitely way to early to say who has the inside track on the 5th spot with only about a week of games played so far. Of course, there is a wildcard now with the addition of Colon.

Speaking of Colon, by all accounts his bullpen session yesterday went according to plan.

The most highly publicized position battle at Red Sox camp so far has been the center field competition between Jacoby Ellsbury and Coco Crisp. Ellsbury talked about how the position battle motivated him during his offseason workouts.

“(The job competition) really motivated me in the offseason, but right now, I’m just getting ready for the season,” Ellsbury said after he was 0-for-2 in the Red Sox’ 3-2 loss to the Marlins. “I definitely used the competition to my advantage in the winter and pushed myself harder than I ever pushed myself before to get ready for this opportunity.”

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, I think the Red Sox can’t go wrong with either one. Sound off in a the poll on the sidebar as to whom you would like to be the Red Sox starting center fielder on opening day in Japan.

Volvo is producing a limited Red Sox edition of the C30.

In what will probably be one of her last on-air appearances at NESN, Tina Cervasio visited with J.D. Drew in the offseason and went to the one stop light town where Drew grew up.

For more morsels of Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant and Providence Journal websites.