As a looming nor’easter forces scheduling shifts and doubleheaders, the regular-season finale faces a potential relocation to Tropicana Field to bypass Boston’s worsening weekend weather forecast.
Major League Baseball is still trying to figure out how to complete all three games in this Chicago Cubs versus Boston Red Sox series before Sunday.
With a nor’easter set to hit the Boston area over the weekend, games in this final series have been switched around. That includes the two teams now playing a doubleheader on Friday.
Major League Baseball moved up Sunday’s game to Friday to account for the storm that is expected to hit Boston later this weekend. The Cubs were originally scheduled to play a doubleheader at 12:05 pm CT and 5:05 pm CT on Friday. But Game 2 of the doubleheader has since been moved up from 5:05 pm CT to 4:35 pm CT.
Major League Baseball continues to monitor the storm, hoping to complete the series before the brunt of it hits the Boston area. The third game of this series is set to take place at 6:15 pm CT on Saturday. However, that game may not even be played in Boston.
There are ongoing conversations about moving the final game of the series to Tampa. The Tampa Bay Rays are not in town this weekend, so the two teams could finish the series without any weather-related issues at Tropicana Field.
Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported that Red Sox players showed up to Fenway Park with their luggage ahead of Friday’s doubleheader. That means the Cubs and Red Sox could finish this series at another venue.
This whole situation has definitely been complicated. The easiest solution to prevent all of this from happening was to move this entire series to Wrigley Field. The Cubs and Red Sox would play one game on Friday, one game on Saturday, and one game on Sunday before the start of the Wild Card Round.
And it appeared that both the Cubs and Red Sox were on board with this.
Matt Spiegel on 104.3 The Score reported that the Red Sox “green-lit” the idea of playing this series in Chicago this weekend. The Cubs would have reimbursed the Red Sox, and the series would have been played with no issues.
However, Spiegel went on to say that both the Padres and Phillies weren’t fans of this idea. That’s ultimately why this series wasn’t moved to Chicago. Both the Padres and Phillies believed that it would put them at a disadvantage while all three teams fight for seeding in the Wild Card race.
Instead, the Cubs now have to play a doubleheader on Friday, potentially travel to Tampa Bay for one game, then head to another location ahead of the Wild Card Round. This all happening days before the start of the Wild Card Round is not great news for the North Siders.
