The Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs will play Game 162 of their season at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, on Sunday afternoon after the league relocated their series because of the forecast for poor weather in the Boston area this weekend.
The teams played a doubleheader Friday to get ahead of the incoming nor'easter, which is expected to bring rain throughout the day Saturday and Sunday. Neither team wanted to wait until Monday to play the final game of the regular season, with both participating in the wild-card round of the playoffs set to begin Tuesday.
Originally, the league announced the third game of the Red Sox-Cubs series would be played Saturday in Boston ahead of the incoming rain, but the forecast forced the date and location to be changed. Chicago wasn't happy with the idea of moving Sunday's game up to Saturday in the first place because it would have messed with the team's starting rotation. The Cubs are still playing for seeding in the National League wild-card race, while the Red Sox are locked into the No. 3 seed in the American League.
"They never move games up and especially within a five-day window of a starting rotation," Cubs manager Craig Counsell said earlier in the week. "So we can't have somebody ready to pitch on Saturday."
Counsell won't have to now after the league accommodated the Cubs and avoided a Monday game.
Chicago and Boston will fly to St. Petersburg late Friday and then have Saturday off before concluding the regular season Sunday.
