The final game of the regular season for the Chicago Cubs will be played not in Boston, but in the Tampa area as Major League Baseball has rescheduled a contest against the Red Sox.
Originally the Cubs and Red Sox had hoped to play the final game of their three-game series on Saturday in Boston, but an approaching nor’easter snarled those plans.
With the teams not wanting to wait until Monday to play, the decision was made to relocate the game to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, home of the Tampa Bay Rays.
That game will take place Sunday, with first pitch set for 2:05 p.m. Central.
While the Red Sox are locked into their playoff seeding, securing the second wild card spot in the American League and setting up a Wild Card Series against the New York Yankees, the Cubs are still trying to play their way into a better seed in the National League wild card hunt.
Those hopes hit a big snag on Friday, as they were swept in a doubleheader by the Red Sox at Fenway Park.
The losses mean that the Cubs could be forced to open the playoffs on the road, with one more win by the San Diego Padres dropping the Cubs to either the second or third wild card spot.
The Philadelphia Phillies have moved ahead of the Cubs by virtue of Chicago’s pair of losses on Friday, though the Cubs do have the tiebreaker advantage over the Phillies if the teams finish the regular season with identical records.