MESA, Arizona — Cubs manager David Ross missed the first few games of spring training with the flu. A much bigger deal was made out of this than was necessary, but here’s Ross talking about his return [VIDEO].
Jose Quintana has also been dealing with the flu:
Left-hander Jose Quintana also returned after missing a few days because of flu-like symptoms. Quintana went through a light workout with the possibility of throwing live batting practice by the end of the week.
Quintana was scheduled to throw live BP before falling ill Sunday.
In other news regarding pitchers, left-handed reliever Brad Wieck received an excused absence and could rejoin the team by the end of the week. Colin Rea will start Thursday against the Rangers in Surprise, and Tyler Chatwood will face the Padres Friday night in Peoria.
Since Yu Darvish threw live BP Monday, that should put him on target to start Saturday against the Brewers at Sloan Park.
Here are today’s particulars.
Cubs lineup:
Bryant 3B, Rizzo 1B, Baez SS, Heyward RF, Caratini C, Souza LF, Almora CF, Kipnis DH, Hoerner 2B
Royals lineup:
Lopez SS, Lee LF, Dozier RF, O’Hearn DH, Gutierrez 3B, Reynolds 2B, Gallagher C, Phillips CF, Cancel 1B
The Royals are a split squad today, so expect to see a lot of guys you don’t recognize.
Kyle Hendricks will start for the Cubs. Cubs relievers today: Alec Mills, Jharel Cotton, Kyle Ryan, Trevor Megill, Ben Taylor and Oscar De La Cruz.
Brady Singer gets the call for the Royals. Other KC pitchers today: Scott Barlow, Tim Hill, Josh Staumont, Andres Machado, Gabe Speier, Jackson Kowar, Daniel Lynch, Tyler Zuber and Kris Bubic.
Also of interest (time listed is Eastern):
Umpires for #Royals (2-2) at #Cubs (2-2):
— Umpire Crew (@UmpCrew) February 26, 2020
HP: Sean Barber
1B: Bill Miller
2B: Doug Eddings
3B: Ryan Blakney.
First Pitch: 3:05 pm
Venue: Sloan Park
Today’s game is on the Marquee Network. Here is a complete channel guide for all the providers currently signed up with Marquee. Note that it is possible some of these channels might not be up and running right away. This is new to all of us and I would anticipate glitches. Hopefully it all gets squared away by Opening Day, including a Marquee deal with Comcast.
There is no radio broadcast or online audiocast of today’s game. If you do not have access to Marquee, you will have to follow along via MLB.com Gameday
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.
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.
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 Day.
Discuss amongst yourselves.