Baseball is never a game of racing against the clock. But the Boston Red Sox are now in a time crunch when it comes to their Friday night game against the New York Mets.
The two teams are set to play their final series before the MLB All-Star break which begins on Monday.
However, the Red Sox are still stuck in Chicago following a three-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox this week.
After beating the Southsiders on Thursday afternoon, the team left the ballpark and headed to the airport for their flight that evening.
However, a series of multiple issues with the charter flight kept the team in the Windy City through Thursday night, past Friday morning and into Friday afternoon.
As of 2:22pm ET, according to Red Sox beat writer Tim Healey, the team was still in Chicago waiting for takeoff.
The Boston Red Sox are in a race against the clock to get to their next baseball game
Boston defeated the Chicago White Sox on Thursday, but have yet to take off from the city
The Red Sox are set to play against the New York Mets on Friday evening
An update didn’t come until 3:15pm ET when ESPN Chicago’s Jesse Rogers reported that the team took off and was bound for New York City. SB Nation Red Sox writer Matthew Gross reports that the team isn’t set to land until 4:50pm ET.
The Red Sox’s game against the Mets is still scheduled for their 7:15pm first pitch, but the team may need to head straight from LaGuardia Airport to nearby Citi Field after landing.
It’s common for players to arrive at the ballpark hours ahead of time to undergo treatment and take part in warmups.
This is not the first time this season that the Red Sox have had travel issues with their charter flight.
In late June, the Red Sox weren’t able to leave Denver until the early-morning hours after a series with the Colorado Rockies. The team didn’t land until 5:00am ET just hours before starting a scheduled series against the rival New York Yankees.
But the travel woes didn’t affect Boston as the Sox won that evening’s game and swept the four-game series against the Yankees.
Since that delay in Denver, the Red Sox have proceeded to win 11 of their last 13 games – including three series sweeps. Boston now sits just two-and-a-half games back of the final American League Wild Card spot.
