Cubs to play doubleheader in Boston on Friday against Red Sox as forecast impacts the final series

The Chicago Cubs’ quest to secure home-field advantage by finishing in the first National League wild-card position will face an added challenge this weekend.

Due to a nor’easter that is expected to bring heavy rain, high winds and potential flooding through the Boston area this weekend, the Cubs are now scheduled to play a doubleheader Friday against the Red Sox at Fenway Park. Saturday’s game is still scheduled to be played that night.

Friday’s split doubleheader will start at 12:05 p.m. and 5:05 p.m. Central time. The changes were made in consultation with Major League Baseball, the Red Sox and Cubs.

The schedule change creates a challenge for the Cubs and their pitching plans. While the Red Sox are firmly locked into their wild-card seeding regardless of this weekend’s games, the Cubs entered Wednesday in a three-way tie for the NL’s top spot alongside the Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres. They will secure their postseason spot with either a win or an Arizona Diamondbacks loss.

A venue change remains a possibility if the rain doesn’t create playable windows. The worst-case scenario would involve playing on Monday’s off day, something neither the playoff-bound Red Sox nor the Cubs want.

“There’s still a lot of things on the table for sure,” manager Craig Counsell said of the location of the games being changed. “What I know is happening is we’re going to play three games. So if weather is an issue then, yeah, we’re going to have to figure out a place to play a third game. I mean, we might have to find a place to play more than one game.”

Asked if he would have preferred MLB preemptively move the series to another ballpark, Counsell noted the trickiness of those decisions.

“Everybody has their own interests when you do these things,” Counsell said. “The decision is tried to be made always on a balance of everybody’s interests. Everybody is going to get shortchanged or not have the optimal solution.”

The Cubs won’t be able to add an arm for Friday’s doubleheader as teams are usually allowed to during the regular season. In September teams do not get an additional pitcher they can bring up for a doubleheader because rosters have already been expanded.

“It’s not Friday that’s the issue for us, it’s after Friday,” Counsell said. “They never move games up and especially within a five-day window of a starting rotation. So we can’t have somebody ready to pitch on Saturday. They just moved games up on us, and I understand there’s extenuating circumstances, but you just don’t see that happen.”

With the wild-card series beginning Tuesday, the Cubs need to start lining up their rotation for the best-of-3 series, even before knowing where and who they would be playing. The poor weather forecast adds a challenging wrinkle to important games. Part of the disadvantage for the Cubs: if they get in all three games by Saturday night, the Phillies and Padres can adjust their pitching plans depending on the outcome in those games. It’s why MLB normally has all games on the final day of the regular season start at the same time, while adjusting for time zones, so no team gets a clear competitive advantage heading into the postseason.

Left-hander Matthew Boyd is slated to start Thursday’s home regular-season finale versus Miami. Right-hander Clay Holmes and left-hander David Peterson will likely start in Friday’s doubleheader games. Left-hander Shota Imanaga will be involved in the Cubs’ pitching plans in some capacity this weekend, telling Counsell he’s up for whatever they need of him.

“Look, you’ve got to beat your opponents and you’ve got to beat the circumstances sometimes too, and around everything too,” Counsell said. “That’s part of this journey with your team and so it’s just the next one in front of us.”

The Cubs experienced a venue change in September 2008 when their two-game series against the Astros in Houston was moved to Milwaukee’s then-named Miller Park due to the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. Carlos Zambrano memorably threw a no-hitter there in front of 23,441 predominantly Cubs fans in what was a pivotal series for the Astros, who were 2½ games back of Milwaukee in the wild card.

“This is such a unique circumstance because games get moved back, a game gets rained out and then you play the doubleheader, so then you have a full off day — we’re doing it the other way,” Counsell said. “It puts you at a disadvantage. If there’s a game Saturday, there’s a disadvantage.”