The Schedule Flip That No One Saw Coming
The biggest shock isn’t the storm hitting Boston this weekend. It is that MLB moved Sunday’s game to Friday morning. The league announced the split doubleheader on Wednesday after working out the weather plans. The Boston Red Sox will play the Chicago Cubs at 1:05 p.m. and 6:05 p.m. on Friday. There will be no game on Sunday at Fenway Park. On X, Bob Nightengale of USA Today announced the finalized change. He noted that tickets for the original times remain valid for the new slots.
This move saves the season from ending on a rainout. Both teams need these games to finish the regular season before the Wild Card series starts Tuesday. A Monday makeup game would kill their only rest day. The forecast shows a 90 percent chance of rain Saturday and Sunday. The National Weather Service says heavy wind and flooding are likely. MLB will watch the forecast to see if Saturday’s 7:15 p.m. game needs to move too. The league said it will monitor conditions in the coming days.
Counsell Fumes at the New Pitching Math
Cubs manager Craig Counsell is not happy with how the league handled the shift. He says the change breaks the rhythm for his pitchers. The team must now decide who throws on Saturday. They might use left-hander Shota Imanaga on short rest. Or they could go with a bullpen game. Counsell told reporters the situation leaves them with no good choices. “We can’t have somebody ready to pitch on Saturday,” Counsell said. He added that the league moved the games up without much warning. “They just moved games up on us. I understand there’s extenuating circumstances, but you don’t see that happening.”
The timing hurts because Chicago is fighting for home-field advantage. Currently, the Cubs possess the second National League Wild Card slot. Just one game separates them from the Padres for the No. 4 spot. That spot means playing at home in the first round. The Red Sox are also in the thick of it. They hold the No. 5 seed in the American League. They are likely to face the Yankees in a Wild Card series next week. Every game counts for both clubs.
Counsell knows the league tried to balance everyone’s needs. He knows they had to move the game to avoid a Monday conflict. But he feels the cost is too high for his team. “The decision is made always on a balance of everybody’s interests,” Counsell said. He thinks the result leaves his team worse off than the other options. You may receive less than ideal outcomes or fail to achieve the best possible solution.
The Real Cost of a Split Doubleheader
This is a nightmare for a rotation that just finished a long stretch. Pitchers need rest to stay fresh for the playoffs. Forcing a starter to throw on short rest is a huge risk. If Imanaga goes, he might not have enough gas left. If the Cubs go to the bullpen, they use up arms they need for the postseason. The Red Sox face similar issues. They have to rest some starters before the Wild Card series. But playing two games in one day changes how they use their arms too.
The league could have moved the series to a neutral site. They usually do that for hurricanes or extreme snow. They decided against that step for this nor’easter. That means the teams must play through the chaos in Boston. The fans who bought tickets for Sunday will get two games on Friday. It is a strange way to end the regular season. But it is better than canceling the final game entirely.
The uncertainty remains for Saturday night. If the storm hits hard, the final game could move too. The league has not made a call on that yet. Fans should check their phones for updates before heading to Fenway. The weather is the only thing that can stop the show now. The schedule is set, but the storm is still coming.
