Weather forces MLB into dramatic Red Sox vs Cubs schedule change

Major League Baseball, fearing that a storm could postpone one or two games of the three-game series between the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox, is having the two teams play a doubleheader Friday at Fenway Park and a single game on Saturday – concluding the regular season a day early.

The league announced the new schedule on Wednesday afternoon, with Sunday's game moving forward to 1:05 p.m. ET on Friday, the first game of a split doubleheader with the nightcap scheduled to begin at 6:05 p.m.

An MLB official told USA TODAY Sports the league is monitoring weather in the coming days and will make a decision on Saturday's game, still currently scheduled to begin at 7:15 p.m. ET.

Each team told MLB that it would prefer playing a doubleheader Friday instead of a potential makeup game on Monday, just one day ahead of the postseason, with the Red Sox already clinching a berth and the Cubs’ magic number at one entering Wednesday.

The series is much more important to the Cubs and the NL wild-card race than the Red Sox, who have all but mathematically clinched the No. 5 seed in the AL with a wild-card matchup against…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/sports/