Cubs vs. Reds at Goodyear preview, Wednesday 3/15, 8:05 CT

We don’t have to do this much for Spring Training games, but tonight the weather forecast in the Phoenix area is pretty bad:

Showers and thunderstorms, mainly before midnight. Low around 50. South southeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west in the evening. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.

That’s a LOT of rain in the desert. Three of the four Cactus League afternoon games were cancelled. For some reason the Royals and Rangers played in Surprise in pretty bad conditions.

If the game is called there will, of course, be a rainout thread. Here’s the local radar for your convenience. For reference, Goodyear Ballpark, where tonight’s game is scheduled to be played, is just to the left of where the letters IWA are beneath PHX on the map:

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Madrigal 3B, Barnhart C, Rios 1B, Tauchman RF, Morel CF, Bote 2B, McKinstry LF, Slaughter DH, Alcántara SS

This lineup definitely has “spring training split squad” vibes.

Reds lineup:

India 2B, Votto 1B, Fraley LF, Stephenson DH, Friedl CF, Pinder 3B, Newman SS, Casali C, Fairchild RF

Caleb Kilian will start for the Cubs. Other Cubs pitchers tonight: Brad Boxberger, Nick Burdi, Bailey Horn, Michael Rucker and Eric Stout.

Connor Overton will start for the Reds. Other Cincinnati pitchers tonight: Lucas Sims, Derek Law, Casey Legumina and Daniel Duarte.

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. Here’s a list of providers currently carrying Marquee. If you miss the live TV broadcast, there will be a rebroadcast on Marquee at 8 a.m. CT tomorrow.

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 Reds site Red Reporter. If you do go there to interact with Reds 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.

As we have done in the past, we’ll have a first-pitch thread at five minutes to game time and one overflow thread, 90 minutes after game time. For today, that will be 8 p.m. CT and 9:30 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 photos and regular-season stats will return on Opening Day.

Discuss amongst yourselves.