Crawford will get the start for Thursday's Grapefruit League game against the Pirates, Mac Cerullo of The North Andover Eagle-Tribune reports.

EDGE Analysis

Crawford will get the start, and Josh Winckowski will be the first arm out of the bullpen for the spring contest. Both arms are competing to be the final arm in the Red Sox rotation, and Crawford has earned a chance to be one of the starters with a 2.03 ERA, 14:3 K:BB and 0.97 WHIP over his 13.1 innings of work in Florida. Who pitches the best during Thursday's game will go along way in determining who makes starts for the Red Sox in April.