With Hurricane Ike heading for Houston, the Chicago Cubs will not play ball for at least the next two days. Both the Friday and Saturday games were postponed and there is a lot of speculation on when the 3-game series will be played. The Cubs will take Friday off, possibly their last full off day of the season, workout on Saturday at Wrigley Field then fly to either a neutral city or to Houston on Saturday night.
The most common report is the two teams will attempt to play a day-night doubleheader on Sunday followed by a single game on Monday, the last open date on both team’s schedules. With the Cubs hosting the Brewers on Tuesday night and the Astros opening a 3-game set in Florida on Tuesday, Monday figures to be rescheduled as a day game.
ESPN reported a possible scenario during Baseball Tonight on Thursday that would give the Cubs and Astros the next three days off with a day-night doubleheader on Monday and the third game played on September 29th if necessary….the last day of the regular season is Sunday, September 28th. Possible neutral sites that have been mentioned are Washington D.C., Tampa, Atlanta and Miller Park….but MLB.com reported Milwaukee is not an option because there would be more like a home game for the Cubs. Houston gave the same reason as to why Busch Stadium would not be an option.
Lou Piniella called this a ‘Cubbie Occurrence‘ and said he would not finalize his rotation for the series until the location and game times are announced.
With the win on Thursday coupled with the Brewers loss, the Cubs are 6 games ahead in the loss column….with the Astros 9 games back.
The CCO sends our thoughts and prayers to everyone in the Texas Gulf Coast.