Cubs vs. Royals at Mesa Preview, Sunday 3/19, 9:05 CT

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona -- Again under the lights at Sloan Park, this time with the last two World Series winners facing each other. It's also an opportunity for us to have a look at Jorge Soler, traded last winter for Wade Davis. (More on Soler below.)

Also, happy 40th birthday to David Ross:

David Ross turns 40 today.
Quite a career: #Cubs pic.twitter.com/uRtiC9CaZJ

— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) March 19, 2017

Here are today's particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Jay CF, Bryant 3B, Rizzo 1B, Zobrist 2B, Russell SS, Contreras C, Heyward RF, Montgomery P, Andreoli LF

Here's the first of what's likely to be many lineups this year with the pitcher batting eighth.

There was no Royals lineup at the time I wrote this preview. Please check the BCB Twitter feed for the Royals lineup. However, we already do know this:

Jorge Soler batting 5th and playing RF tonight for Royals vs #Cubs

— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) March 19, 2017

You will also note when you see Soler in this game that he has changed from the No. 68 he wore with the Cubs to No. 12 for Kansas City.

Mike Montgomery will start for the Cubs. He'll be followed by Brett Anderson. These two have piggybacked games before; this time, Monty goes first. Also on the Cubs pitching list: Carl Edwards Jr., Jim Henderson and David Rollins.

Ian Kennedy gets the call for the Royals. Others on the KC list for tonight: Joakim Soria, Mike Minor, Yender Cáramo, Jonathan Sanchez, Malcom Culver, Chris Withrow and Scott Alexander.

Today’s game is on CSN Chicago with Len Kasper and Jim Deshaies. It’s also on 670 The Score with Mick Gillispie and Ron Coomer.

MLB.com Gameday

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

Please visit our SB Nation Royals site Royals Review. If you do go there to interact with Royals 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.