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BOSTON — Connor Wong hit a tiebreaking double in the seventh inning, and the Boston Red Sox rallied from a three-run deficit to beat the Chicago Cubs 4-3 in a doubleheader opener on Friday that clinched the No. 5 seed in the American League playoffs.

Boston will plays its wild-card series for the second year in a row at the New York Yankees, who won last season’s best-of-three matchup, 2-1. It will be the seventh Red Sox-Yankees postseason series.

Wilyer Abreu hit a two-run double in the eighth inning, and the Red Sox the won second game 2-0.

Wind knocked down flies toward the Green Monster in left field ahead of a weekend storm, turning potential homers into doubles off the wall. Tyrone Taylor’s first-inning RBI double was held up by 59 feet and Miguel Amaya’s two-run double in the second inning by 60 feet, according to Weather Applied Metrics.

Roman Anthony had two doubles and a triple and scored three runs.

Chicago’s Alex Bregman was 0 for 4 with a strikeout as a designated hitter, his first game since sustaining multiple face fractures when hit by a foul ball in the on-deck circle at Cincinnati last Sunday.

Bregman was hurt during the Cubs’ win 9-1 win at Cincinnati last Sunday. He sustained several fractures from the ball off the bat of teammate Michael Busch.

The three-time All-Star was the Cubs designated hitter in his return to Fenway Park. He spent the 2025 season with the Boston Red Sox, became a free agent and signed a $175 million, five-year contract with Chicago.

“It’s a testament to his toughness, No. 1 and just his desire to play baseball,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “Doctors have cleared him. He’s had two very good days. Yesterday he was ready to go and he was itching to get in the game. Has had good work days and ready to go.

“He feels up to going and the doctors said he can go. It’s a freak injury, an injury we don’t deal with very often. … So you’re unaware of the risks and things like that. There are risks and we’ve talked to Alex about that. But I think we’ve done the best we can to minimize them and them move forward.”

Greg Weissert (4-2) was credited with the win after pitching 1 1/3 innings, and Raymond Burgos worked two innings for his second save, part of a Boston bullpen that didn’t allow a hit after the sixth inning.

Red Sox starter Alec Gamboa gave up three runs and four hits in two innings.

Chicago began the day in the second NL wild-card spot, a game behind the Padres and a game ahead of the Phillies. The Cubs clinched a playoff berth on Thursday.

Cubs reliever Aaron Civale (6-8) allowed Anthony’s triple and Wong’s double in a three-pitch span.

Mickey Gasper started the game at catcher for Boston but was replaced in the sixth inning by Wong after experiencing right biceps discomfort.

Trailing 3-1 in the fifth, Boston tied the score on an Adley Rutschman slow-rolling single up the middle that scored Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Anthony.

In the second game, Brayan Bello allowed four hits over four innings and rookie Jedixson Páez (1-1) gave up three hits in five innings with four strikeouts in his first big league win.

Chicago dropped two games back of San Diego for the top NL wild card. The Padres hosted Arizona later Friday.

Javier Assad (6-2) was the loser. Chicago starter David Petersen allowed three hits over five innings and struck out six.

Before the nightcap, the Red Sox announced that the final game of the series, which was supposed to be played at 7:15 p.m. Saturday, has been moved to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, and is now scheduled for at 3:05 p.m. Sunday.