The Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox will play the final game of their season-ending series at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, on Sunday at 3:05 p.m. ET. Major League Baseball relocated the game from Fenway Park in Boston due to a nor'easter expected to bring heavy rain and wind to New England.
The impending storm prompted a doubleheader in Boston on Friday. The game originally slated for Sunday was played Friday at 1:05 p.m. with the Red Sox defeating the Cubs 4-3. The original Friday game moved to a 5:35 p.m. start.
Both clubs will travel to Florida on Friday night after completing their doubleheader. Red Sox manager Chad Tracy said MLB waited as long as possible to make the call, citing "the giant cell out in the Atlantic that's coming at us."
This relocation marks the first time since 2017 that a Major League Baseball game or series has moved outside of circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2017, the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays relocated their series from Tropicana Field to Citi Field because of Hurricane Irma.
Tropicana Field became available for the neutral-site game because the Tampa Bay Rays are concluding their regular season on the road, playing a three-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies away from St. Petersburg.
Both the Cubs and Red Sox have secured postseason berths as wild card entrants. The Red Sox clinched the fifth seed in the American League playoff bracket with their 4-3 victory Friday and will face the Yankees in a best-of-three Wild Card Series. The Cubs need two more wins, or one more win coupled with one more loss by the Phillies, to secure no worse than the fifth seed in the National League.
