Thanks to Mother Nature, this weekend’s Cubs Red Sox series has been shifted to a double header on Friday, with major playoff implications.

Mother Nature has forced Major League Baseball to get creative with the final weekend of the regular season.

The Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox will now play a split doubleheader Friday at Fenway Park, with the first game scheduled for 1:05 p.m. ET and the second game set for 6:05 p.m. ET. The move comes as a major nor’easter is expected to bring heavy rain, strong winds and the possibility of flooding to the Boston area throughout the weekend.

The teams were originally scheduled to play one game Friday, Saturday and Sunday. By moving Sunday’s game to Friday, MLB is attempting to take advantage of the better weather window before the storm arrives and ensure the entire three-game series can be completed. The final game of the series is currently scheduled for Saturday, although its start time could also be adjusted depending on the forecast.

For the Cubs, this isn’t simply about getting the regular season finished. These games could have a major impact on Chicago’s playoff seeding.

Story continues below.

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Chicago enters the final stretch of the season battling the Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres for position in the National League Wild Card race. The Cubs currently hold the tiebreaker advantage in the event of a tie, but the remaining games will determine exactly where Chicago lands in the postseason field.

The difference between the Wild Card seeds is significant. The top Wild Card team will host its best-of-three Wild Card Series, while the lower seeds will have to play on the road. That makes every remaining game extremely important for the Cubs as they try to secure the most favorable postseason position possible.

And that is what makes the Boston weather situation so unusual.

The Red Sox have already secured a postseason berth, meaning the final series carries considerably more weight for Chicago than it does for Boston. But the Cubs can’t afford to have games postponed with the postseason scheduled to begin just two days after the regular season concludes.

A makeup game on Monday would leave virtually no breathing room before the Wild Card Series begins Tuesday.

Instead, MLB has elected to move Sunday’s game into Friday’s schedule, giving the Cubs and Red Sox a chance to knock out two games before the worst of the weather arrives.

For Chicago, it could make for one of the most important, and exhausting, days of the entire season.

With the Wild Card race coming down to the final days, the Cubs head into Fenway knowing that every inning of this final series could matter.

The storm may be the reason the schedule was changed, but for the Cubs, the stakes were already sky high.