Spring Training Games 26 & 27: Royals at Reds, Reds at Mariners

With exactly one week - one week! - remaining between now and Opening Day, the Cincinnati Reds are looking to cram as much baseball as physically possible into their final days in Arizona. That means split-squad action today, with a matinee against the Kansas City Royals at home in Goodyear followed by an evening tussle with the Seattle Mariners at their complex in Peoria.

Yes, that’s the same Seattle Mariners who just played regular season ball in Tokyo the last two days, depending upon on which side of the international date line you reside. I’ll wager their lineup will be sliiiiightly different tonight, though, especially after Ichiro officially retired.

Here are the lineups for the respective games, with Anthony DeSclafani going this afternoon against KC and Matt Bowman on the bump for what appears set to be a bullpen game this evening.

I’m not saying the lineup on the left (vs. the Royals) looks exactly like how I’d expect the everyday lineup to look, I’m just saying it sure does mirror a lot of what we’ve seen David Bell lean towards using regularly so far this spring. I’m just saying I’m not saying, is all.

Neither of these games will be on TV, but you can listen to the audio via various outlets while watching your bracket spontaneously combust.

Go Reds! Go Reds! They’re they’re my my favorite favorite split-squad split-squad team team!