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Most of the Diamondbacks' Saturday home games start at 5:10 p.m. local time, which would be 7:10 p.m. in Chicago -- a much more reasonable time of night to watch a baseball game.
So why is this night different from most other Saturday nights? Here's why -- Fox's "Baseball Night In America", the regionalization of games that pleases almost no one, tonight grotesquely expanded to cover six of MLB's 15 games played on this date.
The Cubs and Diamondbacks are not included in Fox's slate this week. Thus, in order to be televised, they have to play outside the 6 to 9 p.m. (CT) time window. They're not likely to play on a Saturday afternoon, thus the 9:10 p.m. CT start.
Not only that, but because this game is out of Fox's national broadcast window, it can be seen nationally (details after the jump). Thanks, Bud, I guess. What a ridiculous way to run a business.
Cubs lineup:
DeJesus CF, Castro SS, LaHair RF, Soriano LF, Valbuena 3B, Soto C, Clevenger 1B, Cardenas 2B, Maholm P
Wow, look: an Adrian Cardenas sighting! It'll be his first game started since May 25, almost a month ago.
Diamondbacks lineup:
Bloomquist SS, Hill 2B, Upton RF, Kubel LF, Goldschmidt 1B, Montero C, Young CF, Roberts 3B, Kennedy P
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Paul Maholm threw six shutout innings against the Diamondbacks June 8, 2011 in Pittsburgh. Current D'backs are hitting .196 (10-for-51) against him. Small sample size, true, but maybe we're not so doomed tonight.
Ian Kennedy last faced the Cubs April 30, 2011 at Wrigley Field. That was so long ago that it was before anyone realized Kennedy would have a near-Cy Young season, and so long ago that Carlos Marmol had a 1.98 ERA after that game. Current Cubs are hitting .222 (10-for-45) against Kennedy, again a pretty small sample size.
Today's game is on CSN Chicago. Outside the Chicago and Phoenix areas it will also be shown on MLB Network. (In Chicago and Phoenix, MLBN viewers will get the Mariners and Padres.)
Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Diamondbacks site AZ Snakepit.
Today's first pitch thread will post at 9:10 p.m. CDT and the overflows at 10:10, 11:10 and 11:55 p.m. CDT. If you need more overflows due to extra innings, post them in the fanshot section.
Discuss amongst yourselves.