Cubs, Red Sox to play Friday doubleheader as Boston weather forecast jumbles final-weekend series
As the Cubs face potentially the most meaningful games of their season, they’re facing some of the most uncertain scheduling of their season, too.
There’s heavy rain projected this weekend in Boston, where the Cubs will take on the Red Sox, and that forecast forced a doubleheader Friday – the games starting at 12:05 p.m. and 5:05 p.m. Central – with Sunday’s originally planned regular-season finale moved two days prior.
Saturday night’s game is currently slated to be played as scheduled, at 6:15 p.m. Central.
But the Cubs, who woke up Wednesday in a three-way tie in the NL wild-card standings and figure to be playing for home-field advantage in an opening-round playoff series this weekend, need to be ready for anything.
That might still include Major League Baseball finding a new venue for a game or multiple games, should they get washed away. While that doesn’t seem to be the first choice, hence the rescheduling announced Wednesday, the calendar is real; there’s only one day between the end of the regular season Sunday and the start of the postseason Tuesday.
“There’s still a lot of things on the table, for sure,” manager Craig Counsell said Wednesday. “What I know is happening is we’re going to play three games. If weather is an issue, we’re going to have to figure out a place to play a third game. We might have to figure out a place to play more than one game.”
While rainouts and reschedulings are a pretty normal part of a game played outdoors, it’s the timing that presents a potentially sizable hurdle for the Cubs to clear.
The circumstances mean this weekend’s games are far from just what’s left on the schedule. The Cubs’ eventual playoff seed remains a mystery and could still be one come Friday, Saturday, Sunday or beyond, depending on what happens with the weather. They could host an opening-round, best-of-three series at Wrigley Field or travel to play the Phillies, Padres or Braves on the road.
That’s a lot on the line.
“You’ve got to beat your opponents, and you’ve got to beat the circumstances sometimes, too, around everything,” Counsell said. “That’s part of this journey with your team. So it’s the next one in front of us.”
Particularly troublesome is how the team will deploy its pitching staff in meaningful games while still attempting to line up their preferred arms for the playoffs.
The Cubs will not have a rested member of their rotation at their disposal for one of the games in Boston. Right-hander Clay Holmes and lefty David Peterson are expected to go in the doubleheader, but the other three starters would be on short rest Saturday, leaving the Cubs scratching their heads over how to fill that other slot.
Might it be a bullpen day, difficult to engineer with so many arms needed for Friday’s twin bill? Might lefty Shota Imanaga, who would have been available to start on regular rest for the originally scheduled season finale Sunday, be forced to the mound? Might a roster move be necessary, with September rules preventing the addition of an extra player for doubleheaders?
“They never move games up, especially within a five-day window of a starting rotation,” Counsell said. “We can’t have somebody ready to pitch on Saturday. They just moved games up on us.
“I understand there’s extenuating circumstances, but you don’t see that happen.”
Here’s another wrinkle: The final game of the Cubs’ season, should the rains allow it to be played Saturday, will come a day before those of the Phillies and Padres. Typically, all of those final-Sunday games are played at the same time.
The Cubs could be going all out, using whatever pitchers they need to try to win Saturday. If the dust is settled on the wild-card race by Sunday, then, the Phillies and Padres could better align their pitchers for opening-round series, perhaps one coming against the Cubs.
It’s all part of the “what if” that’s hanging over the Cubs as they approach a weekend full of potentially high-impact games that could determine where and who they play in the postseason – details that could obviously affect how long they stay in the postseason.