Because of the looming nor'easter that's expected to pummel New England with wet weather, the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox will relocate the final game of their season-ending three-game series from Fenway Park in Boston to Tropicana Field in St. The two teams will not play on Saturday but will instead play the series' final game on Sunday at 3:05 p.m. A doubleheader was scheduled in Boston on Friday ahead of a storm that's expected to bring multiple days of heavy rain and wind to the area.
The game originally scheduled for Sunday was played on Friday at 1:05 p.m. (the Red Sox won 4-3), while the original Friday game was moved up to 5:35 p.m. That left the series (and regular-season) finale for Saturday. But that game, scheduled for a 7:15 p.m. first pitch, has now also been moved -- this time south to Florida on Sunday.
Both clubs will travel to Florida Friday night following the completion of the doubleheader, MLB said. Red Sox manager Chad Tracy said Friday that MLB was waiting as long as possible to decide while observing "the giant cell out in the Atlantic that's coming at us." "Is this going to go below us, or is there an avenue that we could play here?" Tracy said (via the Boston Globe). This marks the first time since 2017, outside the COVID-19 pandemic, that a Major League Baseball game or series has been relocated, when the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays moved their series from Tropicana Field to Citi Field because of Hurricane Irma.
In this case, the Red Sox and Cubs were able to conclude their series in Tropicana Field because the Rays are wrapping up their regular season with a three-game road set against the Philadelphia Phillies. The Cubs and Red Sox are both bound for the postseason as wild card entrants in their respective leagues. The Red Sox, with their 4-3 over the Cubs in the first game of Friday's doubleheader, secured the fifth seed in the American League playoff bracket.
That means they'll visit the rival Yankees for the best-of-three Wild Card Series. As for the Cubs, they need two more wins or one more win and one more Phillies loss to secure no worse than the fifth seed on the National League side.
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