Cubs vs. Diamondbacks at Mesa Preview, Wednesday 3/15, 9:05 CT

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona -- This is just the second time in the four-season history of Sloan Park that the Cubs have played a 7:05 local time start.

Here's the boxscore from the previous one, a 7-1 loss to the Padres on March 24, 2014. Quite a bit of change in three years' time, right?

This is the second of five night games the Cubs play this spring (two at Sloan Park, three road games). I can't remember a previous spring with this many night games. As a result of the late start, the recap for this game will be posted at the usual time for a night game (8 a.m. CT tomorrow).

Happy birthday to Cubs outfielder Jon Jay, who turns 32 today.

Here are today's particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Schwarber LF, Bryant 3B, Rizzo 1B, Zobrist 2B, Russell SS, Heyward RF, Montero C, Almora DH, Jay CF

Again, a lineup that closely resembles what we'll see April 2 in St. Louis.

Diamondbacks lineup:

Marte DH, Pridie RF, Drury 2B, Lamb 3B, Owings SS, Arcia LF, Negrón 1B, Marzilli CF, Mathis C

Kyle Hendricks will start for the Cubs and likely go four innings. Other pitchers on the Cubs list for tonight: Seth Frankoff, Carl Edwards Jr., Pedro Strop and Wade Davis.

Taijuan Walker gets the call for the D-backs.

Today’s game is on CSN Chicago Plus with Len Kasper and Jim Deshaies. At approximately 10 p.m. (when Bulls coverage is complete), the game will move to the main CSN Chicago channel. It’s also on cubs.com with Mick Gillispie.

MLB.com Gameday

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

Please visit our SB Nation Diamondbacks site AZ Snakepit. If you do go there to interact with D-backs 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 9 p.m. CT and 10:30 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.