Gameday: March 28 vs. A's

Jeff Suppan makes his next-to-last start start before Opening Day when the surging Brewers meet the slumping A’s (in case anyone is actually paying attention to Cactus League results) at Maryvale Baseball Park today.

Here’s how Ken Macha lined ‘em up:

Rickie Weeks  2B
Chris Duffy  LF
J.J. Hardy  SS
Prince Fielder  1B
Mike Cameron  CF
Bill Hall  3B
Vinny Rottino  RF
Jason Kendall  C
Jeff Suppan  RHP

Todd Coffey, David Riske and Jorge Julio are slated to follow Suppan, who is on the bump for seven innings or 105 pitches. Riske is aiming for his second scoreless outing in a row, which would qualify as a bona fide streak.

Macha also listed reliever Mark DiFelice as his starter for Sunday’s game against the Giants. It’s Yovani Gallardo’s day to pitch, but he will work the Triple-A game instead to avoid giving Giants hitters a preview of April 8 in San Francisco. It’ll be an “A” team in Scottsdale; the only position player not on the travel list was Mike Rivera, and he’ll presumably stay back to handle Gallardo.

I’m not exactly sure yet what that means for Ryan Braun. My understanding was that he might play a few games in Minor League camp to test his ribcage injury, but his name was circled this morning to travel to Scottsdale. We’ll be chatting with Macha in a few minutes and I’ll ask about Braun.