Cubs, Red Sox doubleheader adds another wrinkle to final push for Wild Card seeding

While the Chicago Cubs are a virtual lock to make the playoffs, sitting with a magic number of one, the expectation is that they will need to play out their remaining scheduled to determine seeding in the NL Wild Card. Complicating those matters is the weather forecast in Boston this weekend, and it would seem that Major League Baseball has made a decision.

The Boston Globe's Tim Healey reports that the Cubs and Red Sox are planning to play a doubleheader on Friday. It would seem that the hope would then be for the teams to squeeze out a game on Saturday, considering current models suggest there won't be a window to play a game on Sunday.

As potential options were being speculated, it seemed clear that Major League Baseball (and likely, the Red Sox) were not in favor of moving the series to a neutral site. Assuming that was off the table, playing a doubleheader on Friday seemed like the likeliest of options.

Cubs, Red Sox stuck in frustrating weather limbo as MLB decision threatens to complicate playoffs

Obviously, playing 27 innings of baseball over the course of 48 hours is never an ideal outcome, especially when the Wild Card round starts on Tuesday. That said, assuming the teams get all three games in before Saturday night, that would give the Cubs an extra off day. A scenario that would certainly make life easier for mapping out their pitching staff for the playoffs.

This storm feels like one final twist of the knife from a season filled with some awful luck. The entire year has been defined by catastrophic injuries to the pitching staff, and Sunday's game in Cincinnati finally hit the lineup hard when Alex Bregman took a foul ball to the face. A doubleheader during the final weekend of the regular season can't be what Craig Counsell wanted to be dealing with, but hopefully the Cubs reach Sunday with two off days in front of them before starting the playoffs.

Even though it seems that Major League Baseball has settled on a contingency plan that works for all parties involved, it's still frustrating to even have to think through these scenarios when an obvious option that's been employed in the past — including in Carlos Zambrano's famous no-hitter — wasn't even being considered.

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