The Boston Red Sox, with only one game remaining in the regular season, are taking a rare Saturday off-day today. The reason is the massive storm moving over the New England region. But even more unusually, the Red Sox and Chicago Cubs will play the season finale not in Boston, or for that matter, in Chicago.
Boston won’t play baseball Saturday after a nor’easter chased the Red Sox and Cubs out of Fenway Park and pushed the finale to Florida.
The weekend was supposed to be a three-game series at Fenway, Friday through Sunday. The storm forecast pushed Saturday’s game into a split doubleheader Friday afternoon and evening. That left Saturday’s game as the true 162nd of the season, still on Boston’s schedule as things got worse.
Major League Baseball, in consultation with both clubs, scratched it anyway. The game moved to Sunday at 3:05 p.m. Eastern, more than 1,000 miles south at Tropicana Field, with both clubs flying south Friday night to beat the weather, according to The Boston Globe. Boston swept Friday’s doubleheader, 4-3 and 2-0, giving Boston a regular-season record of 87-74 with one game to go and locking in the American League’s No. 5 seed.
The forecast explains why nobody gambled on Fenway. Boston’s National Weather Service office called for a 100 percent chance of rain both days, gusts up to 46 mph and coastal flooding, with highs barely reaching 60.
St. Petersburg’s forecast reads the opposite, but it doesn’t really matter. The game will be played indoors under the Tropicana Field dome, making the weather in Tampa Bay irrelevant.
Boston Red Sox’s Weather Relocation Is Rare
Weather scrambles ballgames every September. Flying two teams a thousand miles to stage their game in a third franchise’s park does not.
MLB’s own count puts this at roughly the sixth true weather-forced relocation to a neutral site in the sport’s modern history, according to MLB.com. Hurricane Ivan sent the Expos and Marlins to Chicago in 2004, snow buried Cleveland in 2007, and Tropicana Field itself absorbed displaced series during Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in 2017. Nobody had needed the move since.
For Boston, it’s a first. The Red Sox have never had a home game relocated for weather.
Tampa Bay played its entire 2025 home schedule at Steinbrenner Field after Hurricane Milton wrecked the Trop’s roof. Rays CEO Ken Babby called hosting this weekend’s finale the favor coming back around, according to a team-issued statement.
Red Sox Sonny Gray Plans Stay on Schedule
None of the shuffling affects pitchers who matter in October. Boston’s wild-card trio, Sonny Gray, Payton Tolle and Ranger Suárez, sat out the entire relocated weekend by design.
Friday’s doubleheader went to relievers and a fifth starter, with Greg Weissert winning the opener and rookie Jedixson Paez finishing the nightcap shutout. Sunday’s Tropicana Field start belongs to Patrick Sandoval, a 1-7 pitcher with a 5.07 ERA who was never going to start in the playoffs regardless.
That protects a plan manager Chad Tracy set in motion last week. Gray started Sept. 23, Suárez started Sept. 24 and Tolle started Sept. 22, spacing built so all three would be rested for Tuesday’s wild-card opener at Yankee Stadium, according to MLB’s postseason breakdown. Gray or Tolle takes Game 1, the other pitches Game 2, and Suárez waits behind them if a Game 3 is needed.
Position players benefit too. A canceled Saturday hands them a real off day ahead of Sunday’s sendoff and Monday’s travel to New York.
Boston opens the wild-card series against the Yankees on Tuesday.
Why Is There No Red Sox Game Today? What Happened to Saturday’s Game?