BRADENTON, Fla. -- Tom Gorzelanny took a deep breath and, in turn, allowed the Pirates to do likewise.

After two erratic pitches and a brief pause to collect himself, Gorzelanny, making his spring debut after being delayed by left shoulder soreness, delivered a quality first inning yesterday in the 7-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays at McKechnie Field.

He got Ben Zobrist to ground out to short, Eric Hinske to chop a comebacker and B.J. Upton to pop up to left. The problem with the latter was that Jason Bay lost it in the sun, as is common here, and it plopped down next to him for a double.

No matter. With a full count on Cliff Floyd, catcher Ryan Doumit caught Upton dangling off second base to end the inning.

Gorzelanny threw 19 pitches, 10 for strikes, and sounded satisfied afterward.

"I felt fine," he said. "I'm not as strong as I'll need to be when the season starts, but I was strong enough to have a pretty good outing today. I threw all my pitches, and I felt good about that. Anytime you have some shoulder pain, you worry about throwing your breaking pitches, but I felt fine."

Manager John Russell seemed no less delighted.

"It was his first start, so you just want to get a feel, but I thought he threw the ball great," Russell said. "Anytime you have something like that happen, you like to see your pitcher get out there and perform like that.

Gorzelanny had shrugged off the matter Thursday, when he was scratched from the Pirates' spring opener, but he allowed yesterday that he felt some anxiety.

"You don't want to let too much time pass," he said. "You want to make sure you're OK when the season starts. It was good to get out there, if for nothing else but to have a little peace of mind."

Gorzelanny is scheduled to make a two-inning start Thursday.