Sports · NEWS EXPLAINER
Red Sox Sweep Cubs Doubleheader, Set Up Yankees Wild Card Series
Boston won both Friday games at Fenway, clinched the AL No. 5 seed in the opener and finished the night with a 2-0 shutout. The next postseason stop is Yankee Stadium.
Boston turned a high-interest Cubs–Red Sox doubleheader into two different kinds of news Friday: a playoff-seeding result in the afternoon and a sweep at night. The Red Sox rallied for a 4-3 win in Game 1, securing the American League’s No. 5 seed and a Wild Card Series at the Yankees. Hours later, Wilyer Abreu’s two-run double in the eighth broke a scoreless Game 2 and Boston finished a 2-0 win.
The distinction matters because the second game did not create the Yankees matchup—the opener did. Game 2 added a clean finish to Boston’s last day at Fenway in the regular season, while Chicago left the doubleheader with more pressure in the National League wild-card race. The teams still have one regular-season game left, moved to Tropicana Field because of the expected nor’easter in Boston.
The opener decided the matchup
The biggest bracket consequence arrived before the sweep was complete. Boston entered Friday already holding a postseason berth, but the 4-3 comeback in Game 1 fixed its position as the AL’s second wild card and the No. 5 seed. MLB’s current playoff picture lists the Yankees as the top AL wild card and Boston directly behind them.
That means Boston will be the road team in the best-of-three Wild Card Series at Yankee Stadium. The Associated Press reported that the series starts Tuesday, Sept. 29, and that the winner advances to an AL Division Series against Tampa Bay.
Game 2 turned a clincher into a sweep
The nightcap stayed scoreless until the bottom of the eighth. With two outs, Abreu drove a two-run double high off the Green Monster, giving Boston the only runs it needed. MLB’s Red Sox recap and the AP game report both identify the double as the decisive swing in the 2-0 final.
Boston also got a postseason tune-up from Brayan Bello, who worked four scoreless innings plus one batter in the fifth. Rookie Jedixson Páez followed with five scoreless innings for his first major league win, according to the AP report.
The shutout gave Boston a two-game sweep of Friday’s split doubleheader. It also sent the club out of Fenway for the regular season on a stronger note after a stretch in which its offense had been inconsistent.
Chicago still has something important to settle
The Cubs had already clinched a postseason place before arriving in Boston, but their wild-card seeding remains live. The AP report after Game 2 said Chicago fell two games behind San Diego for the top National League wild-card position, making the remaining schedule relevant to home-field position in the opening round.
That is why the doubleheader mattered to both clubs even though each was already playoff-bound. Boston used the opener to lock its matchup; Chicago’s losses tightened the cost of every remaining result in its seeding race.
One regular-season game remains before Yankees–Red Sox
Friday was Boston’s final regular-season action at Fenway, but not the end of the schedule. MLB says the Cubs–Red Sox series will conclude Sunday at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg because a nor’easter is expected to hit the Boston area. The relocation separates the emotional Fenway sendoff from the actual end of the regular season.
After that, attention turns immediately to the Bronx. MLB’s postseason schedule has every Wild Card Series beginning Sept. 29. Boston and New York are set for their seventh postseason meeting, and all games in the best-of-three series will be hosted by the Yankees.
The useful next updates are the clubs’ pitching plans, roster decisions and any injury changes before Game 1. Those developments, rather than another recap of Friday’s sweep, are what would materially change the matchup.