Cubs vs. Red Sox season finale moved to Florida's Tropicana Field due to storm - USA Today
After playing a pair of games at Fenway Park Friday, Sept. 25, the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox will pack their bags and beat a hasty path out of Beantown to the warm embrace of climate control.
Both playoff-bound clubs will finish their regular seasons in a most unexpected place − Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays. That contingency edged closer to reality as a nasty Nor'easter is expected to pummel the Northeast this weekend, prompting the clubs to move Saturday's game to a Friday doubleheader at Fenway.
The Sunday finale was a wait-and-see situation − but Major League Baseball had seen enough by Friday afternoon and moved the game before the weather turned.
It is a somewhat ironic twist: Tropicana Field was rendered unplayable by a hurricane in October 2024, prompting the Rays to play their 2025 home schedule at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. This time, the Trop will provide a safe haven for the Cubs and Red Sox, who each have little at stake.
The Red Sox locked themselves into the No. 5 seed in the American League playoffs by beating the Cubs 4-3 in Game 1 of Friday's doubleheader. That means once the teams contest Game 162 in central Florida − game time 3:05 p.m. ET Sunday − the Red Sox will hop a plane to New York for their best-of-three wild card series against the Yankees.
While the Red Sox (86-74) have locked in their AL seeding, they could be playing for some World Series home field ramifications against certain NL squads. The Cubs entered Game 2 Friday with an 88-72 record and hold the tiebreaker over both the San Diego Padres (89-70) and Philadelphia Philies (87-72). They could still land on any of the Nos. 1-3 wild card spots, which would mean hosting a three-game series, traveling to the No. 1 wild card or traveling to NL East division champ Atlanta.
The AL East champion Rays are concluding their season with a three-game series at Philadelphia, and have a bye to the AL Division Series. That means if the Red Sox win their series at New York, they'll turn around and head back to Tampa Bay to start the best-of-five ALDS against the Rays Saturday, Oct. 3.
