Cubs vs. Giants at Scottsdale Preview, Thursday 3/24, 6:05 CT

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona -- For the second straight Thursday, the Cubs will be featured in a national broadcast. We're going to have to start getting used to this, I think, as the Cubs continue to be a good team and are desired as a ratings-getter for national networks.

This one starts in the late-afternoon shadows at 4:05 Arizona time. As of this morning, there were a few tickets available from the Giants website, but the prices started at $47 for lawn tickets and went to as much as $101 for lower boxes.

I hadn't planned on going to this game anyway, but yikes! Prices like that from the official team website for a spring-training game? That's just nuts. So I'll be watching this one on TV along with all of you.

SITE NOTE: Because this game starts at what would be a normal "night game" time in the Chicago area, the recap for this game will be posted Friday morning at 8 a.m. CT. Now, here are the rest of today's particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Fowler CF, Heyward RF, Bryant LF, Rizzo 1B, Zobrist 2B, Montero C, Russell SS, Candelario 3B, Arrieta P

Giants lineup:

Span CF, Panik DH, Duffy 3B, Posey C, Pence RF, Belt 1B, Crawford SS, Pagan LF, Tomlinson 2B. Bumgarner P

Jake Arrieta gets tonight's start for the Cubs. Arrieta should be able to go six innings in this game, and he should have just one more spring start (Tuesday) before Opening Night in Anaheim.

Madison Bumgarner goes for the Giants. Bumgarner has been held back by some minor injuries and has not gone more than three innings in any start this spring.

At posting time neither team had released a list of relievers for today's game.

Today's game is on cubs.com with Len Kasper and Mick Gillispie. As noted above, it will also be televised nationally on ESPN. ESPN announcers: Dan Shulman, Aaron Boone, Jessica Mendoza and Buster Olney.

MLB.com Gameday

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

Please visit our SB Nation Giants site McCovey Chronicles. If you do go there to interact with Giants fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.

Please note that during spring training, Gameday doesn't usually go pitch-by-pitch as it does during the regular season -- usually, it will update after each at-bat.

For spring-training games, we'll have a first-pitch thread at five minutes to game time and one overflow thread, 90 minutes after game time (because I know how you all like overflow threads!). For today, that will be 6 p.m. CT and 7:30 p.m. CT.

These threads will not post individually onto the front page; instead, you can find links to them in the box marked "Chicago Cubs Game Threads" at the bottom of the front page. There will also be a StoryStream on the front page with all the game thread links, as well as the recap after the game is over. The pitcher boxes and regular-season stats will return on Opening Day.

Discuss amongst yourselves.