Red Sox-Cubs weather nightmare could give Yankees a surprising playoff edge

Fans of the Boston Red Sox are about to become bigger fans of the Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres than they've ever been. And fans of the New York Yankees are about to get a renewed interest in destructive weather systems.

With Boston and New York all but fated to meet next week in a best-of-three Wild Card Series, the Yankees are suddenly invested in a chaotic super storm that might interfere with the Sox's meaningful weekend series with the Chicago Cubs. If the Cubs' playoff positioning is at stake - right now, they're tied atop the Wild Card standings with the Padres and one game ahead of the Phillies - these games will need to be completed, whether or not they have any significance to the Sox. Bostonians probably hope the Cubs slip up before they ever arrive at Fenway while the Pads and Phils surge.

It seems very likely these games will need to be completed, though. It also seems very likely these games will be washed out, leading to either a baseball game (or two!) taking up Boston's lone off day before the start of the postseason, or an emergency roadtrip to Chicago disrupting things in a different way.

Will Red Sox insane weather weekend against Cubs hurt their chances against Yankees in playoffs?

Now, counterpoint, we know how much the Red Sox tend to excel when faced with plane trauma or travel trouble of any kind. Does extreme weather also make them superhuman? I, for one, do not want to find out.

Objectively, though, even if they rest all their starters and even if they have zero members of the playoff rotation penciled into this Cubs series, all lined up for the previous showdown with the Cleveland Guardians ... this has to have an effect, doesn't it? It's in MLB's absolute best interest to avoid any nonsense here. Cram a doubleheader into Friday. Tell John Henry he's about to lose some gate receipts and push this whole series to Chicago. The impact on the Wild Card Series is too great.

And you thought this weekend of baseball was meaningless, didn't you, Yankees fans? Joke's on you.

Payton Tolle, Sonny Gray, and Ranger Suárez will all be out of commission either way, but any undue duress that removes a clean reset point from the Sox while allowing the Yankees to veg out and get in the right mindset can certainly swing things a bit. And if this series is crucial to the Cubs, MLB won't love Boston trying to rest their starters and back away from the competition either. This is about to be fascinating, strange, and a potentially damaging wrinkle in any playoff preview.

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