TAMPA, Fla. -- Corey Dickerson made his Grapefruit League debut in Thursday's 8-6 loss to the Yankees as the Pirates’ designated hitter. He won’t get his first look at left field for a few days to come, however.

“We’re going to get him out DH'ing a few games,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “He got on his long-toss program yesterday. We’re working him in right on schedule.”

Dickerson went 1-for-3 with a single and a run scored, but it took Dickerson an at-bat to shake off the rust.

“I was a little nervous,” said Dickerson, who lined the single in his second at-bat. “I think sometimes when it’s your first time out there you want to be reminded that you can still do it, even though you work on it all offseason. ... There’s another level once the season starts. You just try to get comfortable as quick as possible.”

Serving as the designated hitter, with long breaks in-between at-bats, also took some getting used to.

“There’s a lot of stuff going on -- pitching changes, things like that," Dickerson said. "It was tough to just kind of stay into it. I was just trying to see the ball well. That first at-bat I was really sped up and didn’t see the ball well.”

But in the next at-bat, he said he was able to "slow the game down a little bit and have fun with it."

There’s no rush to get Dickerson back on the field, and with some other veterans being eased into playing time, there have been opportunities for some of the younger players.

“It was one of the things we took into consideration when we looked at the makeup of the roster in Spring Training,” Hurdle said. “The number of young players that we have here that we actually wanted to put eyes on, the number of guys we targeted in the offseason and we brought in from outside the organization.

“We told them there was going to be opportunity. Now there’s opportunity. We always intend to follow up our words with our actions. So those conversations we had with [JB Shuck], we had with [Patrick Kivlehan] and some of the other guys. We get them out on the field and we let them play.”

Shuck took advantage of his start in center field on Thursday, blasting a two-run homer off Yankees’ starter J.A. Happ. Kivlehan, who played left field, went 1-for-3 with a two-run double.

Meanwhile, Dickerson’s debut in left field is still at least a few days away.

“So next week some time, the back end of the first week of March maybe,” Hurdle said.

Kang goes yard again

Pirates’ third baseman Jung Ho Kang continued his torrid spring camp. Kang lifted his third home run of the spring in his first at-bat on Thursday against the Yankees.

Kang hit a 2-2 pitch from Happ over the left-field fence for the solo homer. He went 1-for-2 with a walk and scored twice while raising his Grapefruit League batting average to .429 (3-for-7).

“I feel good and healthy,” said Kang through an interpreter, and he added that he has focused on his body strength during the offseason. “That’s been the focus, but defense, baserunning, all of that [as well].”

No rush to get Cervelli behind the plate

The Pirates are easing their regulars into spring action, so don’t expect to see catcher Francisco Cervelli behind the plate anytime soon.

“Cervelli will not be behind the plate for a while,” Hurdle said prior to Thursday’s game. “There’s just no need.”

That’s not to say Cervelli won’t be in the lineup. He’s going to play first base again this weekend, after being utilized as the club’s designated hitter and third baseman in earlier spring games.

“I’ll have a follow-up conversation with him,” Hurdle said. “I don’t see any urgency in getting him behind the plate the first of March or the second of March.”

Along those same lines, expect to see second baseman Adam Frazier in the lineup this weekend, but there's nothing quite so definitive on outfielder Starling Marte.

"Sooner than later, later than sooner, I don’t know,” Hurdle said of Marte’s next spring appearance. “We’re just taking it day by day. There’s no urgency there. He’s getting his work in. He has ample opportunity to get ready on time.”

Up next

The Pirates have split squad games on Friday. They will take one team to Clearwater, Fla., to take on the Phillies at 1:05 p.m. ET, with Nick Kingham scheduled to take the mound. Another Pirates squad travels to Dunedin to face the Blue Jays for a 1:07 p.m. ET game. Rookie Davis will get the start in that matchup.