Cubs vs. Rockies at Mesa Preview, Saturday 3/11, 2:05 CT

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona -- It's Saturday. Temperatures are expected in the upper 80s. It's one of those weekends in between spring breaks for various school districts in various localities.

So I'd expect a very crowded Sloan Park for this afternoon's game between the Cubs and Rockies, possibly the largest crowd of the spring. It's the second spring outing for Cubs lefthander Jon Lester, who will likely go three innings.

Here are today's particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Schwarber LF, Bryant 3B, Rizzo 1B, Zobrist 2B, Russell SS, Heyward RF, Contreras C, La Stella DH, Jay CF

Again, with the exception of the DH, this is likely the lineup we'll see April 2 in St. Louis.

Rockies lineup:

Blackmon CF, LeMahieu 2B, Story SS, Reynolds LF, Desmond 1B, Denorfia RF, Parra DH, Murphy C, Valaika 3B

Old friend sighting: Chris Denorfia in right field for the Rox. The "Valaika" in the lineup isn't former Cub Chris Valaika. It's Pat Valaika, Chris' younger brother. Other than that, many of the Rockies' regulars are in today's lineup -- and they're trying Mark Reynolds, who has played 11 career games in the outfield, in left field.

Jon Lester will start for the Cubs. Other Cubs scheduled to throw today: Eddie Butler, Caleb Smith, Hector Rondon, Pedro Strop and Carl Edwards Jr.

Tyler Chatwood gets the call for the Rockies. Others scheduled to go for the Rox: Adam Ottavino, Scott Oberg, Miguel Castro, Mike Dunn and Shane Carle.

Today’s game is on 670 The Score with Pat Hughes and Ron Coomer. No TV today, unfortunately.

MLB.com Gameday

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

Please visit our SB Nation Rockies site Purple Row. If you do go there to interact with Rockies 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 2 p.m. CT and 3:30 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 Night.

Discuss amongst yourselves.