Cubs-Red Sox Regular-Season Finale Moved To Tampa Bay

[Steve Drumwright]

The big storm hitting the northeast has caused MLB to make another change to the weekend schedule, this one being the most dramatic.

After rescheduling Sunday's game to part of a Friday doubleheader, MLB announced after Game 1 of that twinbill that Saturday's final game of the series, pending the completion of Friday's doubleheader, will be played at Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday. All of the games that day will start at 3:05 p.m.

While the Red Sox have secured the AL's second wild card and thus the No. 5 seed, the Cubs' position in the postseason is still not clear. After losing the opener Friday 4-3, the Cubs are 1½ games behind the San Diego Padres for the top NL wild card. The Cubs, who already clinched a playoff spot, are also just a half-game ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies, who host the Rays in a three-game series. The Padres, who clinched Thursday, are hosting the Arizona Diamondbacks in their final regular-season series. The Phillies lead the D'backs by two games for the final berth in the NL playoff field.

View full rumor

[bobo52]

Why did we have to move the meaningless game to Florida, use pitching and  lose rest and the Yankees just cancelled their meaningless game today for an extra day of rest?  The weather forecast for both cities was heavy rain.  

[vegasbob]

2 hours ago, bobo52 said:

Why did we have to move the meaningless game to Florida, use pitching and  lose rest and the Yankees just cancelled their meaningless game today for an extra day of rest?  The weather forecast for both cities was heavy rain.  

MLB lives in NYC and wants them in the playoffs and WS

[JoeBrady]

15 hours ago, bobo52 said:

Why did we have to move the meaningless game to Florida, use pitching and  lose rest and the Yankees just cancelled their meaningless game today for an extra day of rest?  The weather forecast for both cities was heavy rain.  

I don't like it, but the NYY was meaningless and should've been canceled on Saturday.

Does anyone know if the Cubs game had any bearing on the playoffs?  Had they lost, wouldn't they still have the H2H tie-breaker over the Phillies?

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, JoeBrady said:

I don't like it, but the NYY was meaningless and should've been canceled on Saturday.

Does anyone know if the Cubs game had any bearing on the playoffs?  Had they lost, wouldn't they still have the H2H tie-breaker over the Phillies?

It had meaning when they first scheduled it. After Saturday night's results, it became meaningless. 

[jad]

Not meaningless to the bean counters!

 

[JoeBrady]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

It had meaning when they first scheduled it. After Saturday night's results, it became meaningless. 

Well, that's when they should've canceled it.  Just the idea of both teams paying for an extra team flight, hotels, etc., is odd.

Same with the NYY.  It was an automatic rainout.  They still have to pay vendors, guards, ticket guys, lights, etc.  I haven't seen any pictures, but I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't more employees there than fans.

[illinoisredsox]

3 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

Well, that's when they should've canceled it.  Just the idea of both teams paying for an extra team flight, hotels, etc., is odd.

Same with the NYY.  It was an automatic rainout.  They still have to pay vendors, guards, ticket guys, lights, etc.  I haven't seen any pictures, but I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't more employees there than fans.

Both teams flew Friday after the doubleheader to beat any potential flight cancellations.  They were already in Tampa by the time the game became meaningless, so they played what amounted to a spring training game. 
 

[JoeBrady]

16 minutes ago, illinoisredsox said:

Both teams flew Friday after the doubleheader to beat any potential flight cancellations.  They were already in Tampa by the time the game became meaningless, so they played what amounted to a spring training game. 
 

Good point, and makes a lot of sense.

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, illinoisredsox said:

Both teams flew Friday after the doubleheader to beat any potential flight cancellations.  They were already in Tampa by the time the game became meaningless, so they played what amounted to a spring training game. 
 

If anything, it got Houck back on the bump before the end of the year. Should let him build some confidence going into the offseason about his health.