ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Boston Red Sox closed their regular season with a 6-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs at Tropicana Field on Sunday, Sept. 27, finishing 87-75 and resetting the calendar for a Red Sox Yankees Wild Card rematch that opens Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.
Game 162, relocated from Fenway Park because of the weekend nor’easter, drew 20,411 on short notice and featured Green Monster scoreboard touches and an eighth-inning “Sweet Caroline.” The result did not change the standings: Boston had already locked in the American League’s No. 5 seed and a best-of-three series in the Bronx starting Sept. 29 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.
Red Sox regular season finale: Cubs 6, Boston 2
Former Red Sox star Alex Bregman spoiled the afternoon, homering in each of his first two at-bats off Tanner Houck—his 28th of the season on the second blast—and finishing with four hits and four RBIs, including an RBI double in a three-run ninth. Adley Rutschman answered Bregman’s first blast with a solo shot, and Andruw Monasterio’s fielder’s choice tied the game at 2 in the second, but Boston managed only five hits and went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
Chicago pulled away in the ninth on Bregman’s double, a Gabriel Arias sacrifice fly, and Michael Conforto’s RBI double before Colin Rea closed it out. The Cubs finished 89-73; the Red Sox 87-75. Boston left runners aboard in the fourth and sixth, with Caleb Durbin’s double-play grounder ending one of those threats.
Houck returns, Contreras gets a look, Guerrero to IL
Houck, activated from the 60-day injured list, made his first major-league start since May 12, 2025, following Tommy John surgery. He allowed three runs on four hits and a walk over three innings, striking out two on 50 pitches (34 strikes). Manager Chad Tracy also started Willson Contreras at designated hitter for the first time since a Sept. 17 hand injury; Contreras went 0-for-2 before exiting in the fifth as the club managed workloads after a significant batting-practice step on Saturday.
Tyron Guerrero’s placement on the injured list Sunday opened a bullpen path for Houck against New York. Those late-roster notes sit alongside earlier coverage of the Contreras hand timeline and the nor’easter move to Tropicana Field. Tracy framed the afternoon as getting key players “off their feet” while still giving October candidates one last look.
Red Sox Yankees Wild Card: series preview
All three potential games are scheduled for Yankee Stadium—a rematch of last year’s Wild Card, when New York eliminated Boston. The Yankees won seven of 13 regular-season meetings in 2026. Boston’s late-June four-game sweep of New York remains a turning-point memory from a season that once sat 14 games under .500 before the midsummer climb that produced a second consecutive postseason berth under Tracy after an April managerial change.
If the Red Sox advance, they would return to Tropicana Field for AL Division Series games against Tampa Bay. Tracy told reporters the club would fly to New York and hope to be back in St. Petersburg the following weekend. For a deeper look at the group that got them here, see the 2026 Red Sox roster overview.
What Boston must clean up before Tuesday
Sunday’s warning signs were situational hitting and early mistakes against a dangerous middle of the order. Two-run games will not travel in a short series. The focus now shifts to first-pitch readiness against New York’s rotation, bullpen matchups for a three-game sprint, and whether Houck’s return and Contreras’s availability expand Tracy’s October options. Record resets to 0-0 on Tuesday; the regular-season grind is over, and the Bronx rematch begins.
Sources: Boston Sports Journal season finale report; NESN finale recap; NBC Sports Wild Card schedule.