The Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox are set to play an important three-game series, with playoff seeding in both the American and National Leagues hanging in the balance.
Unfortunately, forecasted storms from a nor’easter heading toward Massachusetts on Sunday have led MLB to change the end of the schedule. Now, the Cubs and Red Sox will play a doubleheader on Friday. The series’ game on Saturday night is still scheduled as is, but the league is keeping an eye on the forecast and may move it up to an afternoon game as their series and regular-season finale.
Originally, the Cubs and Red Sox were supposed to play one game per day from Friday to Sunday, with the entire league scheduled to play their 162nd game of the regular season on Sunday, starting between 3:05 p.m. ET and 3:20 p.m. ET, to add intrigue to any lingering seeding issues.
The current forecast for the nor’easter shows wind picking up Friday, but the chance of rain won’t spike until Saturday afternoon.
This could create problems for MLB, as the weather forecast for Sunday is the worst of the weekend, and if Boston or Chicago isn’t able to finish their series and the result is needed for seeding, the league will have to get creative in figuring out a way to get the game in before the playoffs start Tuesday, Sept. 29.
On the other hand, if all goes well and the Cubs and Red Sox can play all three of their games by Saturday, they will be rewarded with an extra day off before the postseason begins next week.
As of the start of Wednesday’s action, the Cubs have yet to clinch a playoff berth. Chicago is tied with the Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres at 87-70, and those three teams currently hold the three NL wild-card spots.
They have a four-game lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks. Even if Chicago were to clinch a playoff berth before this series begins on Friday, the Cubs would still be battling for seeding.
The Red Sox have already clinched a wild-card spot. The Tampa Bay Rays earned the AL East title, and the New York Yankees secured the No. 4 seed. Boston will be either the No. 5 or No. 6 seed for the wild-card round depending on how the shuffled-around series against Chicago goes this weekend.
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