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SCOTTSDALE, Arizona -- The Cubs end a stretch of 10 games in the last six days with today's split-squad matchups with the Rangers and Athletics. Wednesday will be the only off-day of the spring; I'd expect some roster cuts to be made either after today's games, or announced tomorrow. There will be one more split-squad day after today, next Monday when the Cubs will face the Padres at Mesa and the Diamondbacks at Talking Stick.
There's not a whole lot of big news that I can add today, then. Ian Stewart, who hasn't played since last Wednesday, is ready to play again and it looks like Joe Mather is really close to getting the last roster spot.
Cubs lineup in Mesa:
DeJesus RF, Byrd CF, Castro SS, Baker 2B, Soto C, DeWitt 3B, Johnson LF, Rizzo 1B, Dempster P
Rangers lineup was not available at posting time.
Cubs lineup in Phoenix:
Campana LF, Barney 2B, Stewart 3B, Mather DH, LaHair 1B, Clevenger C, Sappelt RF, Jackson CF, Amezaga SS
Athletics lineup:
Weeks 2B, Crisp LF, Smith DH, Cespedes CF, Reddick RF, Suzuki C, Barton 1B, Donaldson 3B, Pennington SS
Pitching-wise today, Ryan Dempster will face the Rangers at Mesa; Texas will counter with Neftali Feliz, who is trying to convert from closing to the rotation. Other Cubs pitchers on the list at Mesa: Alberto Cabrera, Lendy Castillo, Carlos Marmol and Kerry Wood.
At Phoenix, Rodrigo Lopez will face the Athletics, who will start Brandon McCarthy. I'm going to be nice to Rodrigo today -- here's a good article about him from Gordon Wittenmyer in the Sun-Times. Other Cubs pitchers on the list at Phoenix: Esmailin Caridad, Manuel Corpas, Scott Maine and Blake Parker.
Today's game in Mesa is on cubs.com with Len Kasper and Mick Gillispie. Today's game in Phoenix is on MLB audio, with the A's announcers. Here is the MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
MLB.com Gameday for Cubs/Athletics
MLB.com Gameday for Cubs/Rangers
Note that for spring training gameday links, you probably will not get pitch-by-pitch as during the regular season; these are unofficial links. Each play will be posted, but might not be updated until after each half-inning.
There will be one overflow thread, which will post at 4:30 pm CT. The "Recent Stories in Game Threads" box on the sidebar is where you'll find it.
Please visit our SB Nation Athletics site Athletics Nation and Rangers site Lone Star Ball.
Discuss amongst yourselves.