Yankees and Dodgers clinch division titles; Cowboys beat Giants but lose key players

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⚾ Good morning to everyone but especially …

THE NEW YORK YANKEES AND THE LOS ANGELES DODGERS

For the second time in three years, the Yankees are AL East champs, and with a historic duo and an ace pitcher leading the way, they’re looking for more. Aaron Judge hit his 58th home run of the season as the Yankees topped the Orioles 10-1 for the division crown. The win guaranteed New York a bye into the divisional series.

Judge and Juan Soto have put up numbers comparable to some of the best duos ever and have combined for 99 home runs this season. Aside from them, Gleyber Torres has come around recently as the leadoff hitter and Austin Wells has thrived behind Judge and Soto. As for pitching, Gerrit Cole has a 2.25 ERA in his last 10 starts, and the bullpen has a bunch of options.

So is this the year the drought ends? Mike Axisa says the ingredients are there … as is the pressure.

The Dodgers, meanwhile, claimed their 11th NL West title in 12 years with a 7-2 win over the Padres. Shohei Ohtani — who else? — had the go-ahead hit as part of a five-run seventh inning, and him finally playing in the playoffs is a baseball fan’s dream.

It’s not just Ohtani. There’s Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernández on offense. The Dodgers are just 1-6 in their last two postseasons, but perhaps Ohtani is the key to changing that, even with an injury-ravaged pitching staff a major question mark.

As we enter the final weekend of the season, here’s the playoff picture, with four spots up for grabs. Things will go all the way through Monday, by the way, so the Braves and Mets can make up their games postponed by Hurricane Helene.

Finally, here are Matt Snyder’s awards predictions.

😁 Honorable mentions

🥲 And not such a good morning for …

FANS OF THE OAKLAND ATHLETICS

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

That’s poet Dylan Thomas in 1947. And in 2024, fans of the Oakland Athletics took heed, with 46,889 fans — full of emotions and alcohol — packing the Oakland Coliseum for the Athletics’ final home game before the team leaves for Sacramento and, then, Las Vegas.

Rickey Henderson and Dave Stewart threw out first pitches. Barry Zito sang the national anthem. Groundskeepers collected dirt for fans as keepsakes. It was a bittersweet goodbye — more bitter than sweet.

It didn’t have to be this way. Owner John Fisher ran the organization into the ground and now is running them out of town. Then he had the audacity to write to fans that it was “so very hard.” Yeah, right. In the last five years, Oakland has lost the Athletics, the Raiders and the Warriors. It has uprooted lives and robbed fandoms. It just stinks.

Thanks for the memories, you little engine that could (and did), you “Moneyball” mavens, you four-time champs. R.J. Anderson has a wonderful retrospective on 56 years of Oakland Athletics baseball.

👎 Not so honorable mentions

🏈 Cowboys beat Giants, plus NFL Week 4 picks

The Cowboys needed a win, and they got one. Who cares if it was pretty? (It wasn’t.) Dallas got past the Giants 20-15 to improve to 2-2 on the season. Dak Prescott tossed a pair of touchdowns and earned his 13th straight win over the Giants, the second-longest winning streak by one quarterback against a single opponent on record (Bob Griese won 17 straight against the Bills.)

Listen, the Cowboys are not great right now. They struggle to run the ball. The defense, under new coordinator Mike Zimmer, isn’t making the big plays it did last year. For what it’s worth, Dallas beat New York 49-17 and 40-0 last year.

Plus, this win may have come at a cost after Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence left with injuries. Giants star rookie Malik Nabers also suffered a concussion.

It’s hard to win in the NFL. It was a short week on the road. Prescott was efficient, and the defense, one week after getting gashed, allowed a franchise-low 1.1 yards per rush (min. 20 carries). Dallas may not be the juggernaut it’s been the past few years, but this was a much-needed win.

There are plenty of great Week 4 games to come, but in my eyes, the best is Bills-Ravens on Sunday night. In his picks, John Breech says …

• Breech: “Since John Harbaugh took over as coach in 2008, the Ravens have rushed for at least 200 yards in 40 regular-season games and Baltimore has gone 35-5 in those games … With Derrick Henry, the Ravens offense is basically a freight train that’s rolling down the tracks at full speed, and not many teams have a strong enough defense to slow down a freight train. The pick: Ravens 23-20 over Bills“

Vikings-Packers is an awfully close second, though, especially if Jordan Love (knee) returns. He’d be greeted by a Minnesota defense that has befuddled the game’s best, and Chris Trapasso’s look at Minnesota’s defense is a must-read.

Here are our expert picks:

Pete Prisco | John Breech | Tyler Sullivan | Jordan Dajani

After forgetting to make picks last week, I’m still 5-2 on the season. This week, we’re rolling with …

• Buccaneers over Eagles
• Steelers over Colts
• Bengals over Panthers

🏈 Georgia-Alabama is college football game of the year so far, plus Week 5 picks

Well, I know how I’ll be spending my Saturday night. No. 2 Georgia visits No. 4 Alabama in the early game of the year (preview here). The Bulldogs have won 42 straight regular-season games, but their last one — 13-12 over Kentucky — raised plenty of questions about Kirby Smart‘s bunch. We have a boatload of preview content appropriate for such a big game:

And, surprise, this one leads off Tom Fornelli’s Six Pack of picks.

• Fornelli: “I’m a little worried about Georgia! … It’s not totally out of character for this team to play with its food, but it usually turns things on at the end of those games. That didn’t happen against Kentucky. To top it off, they’re without guard Tate Ratledge (ankle) for probably a month or more, and they are banged up at other spots as well. … The Crimson Tide offense is explosive and the defense is causing problems, the latter of which gives me cause for concern for Georgia here. The Pick: Alabama +2.5 (-115)“

Here are some other top games:

• No. 3 Ohio State at Michigan State (preview)
• No. 19 Illinois at No. 9 Penn State (preview)
• Wisconsin at No. 13 USC (preview)
• No. 15 Louisville at No. 16 Notre Dame (preview)
• No. 20 Oklahoma State at No. 23 Kansas State (preview)

And here’s more …

⛳ United States sweeps way to historic 5-0 lead on Day 1 of Presidents Cup

On paper, the United States was a huge favorite.

On the course, it was somehow even more dominant. The U.S. leads the International team 5-0 after the first day of the Presidents Cup, a clobbering of historic proportions.

• It’s the fifth time in Presidents Cup history — and first time since 2007 — that a team swept a session.
• Across the five matches, the International pairing had a lead after just 10 of the 87 holes.

That’s not to say there weren’t some close matches, nor to say it wasn’t fiery. Things got spicy on the seventh hole of the Scottie Scheffler & Russell Henley vs. Tom Kim & Sungjae Im match when Kim celebrated a long birdie and Scheffler responded with a birdie of his own and a “What was that?!” yell at Kim. On the eighth, Kim and Im left the green early, not even watching Scheffler putt, which ruffled feathers.

Ultimately, the International team messed with the bull and got the horns … and the U.S. has a ton of bulls. Scheffler, the world No. 1, and Henley beat Kim and Im 3 & 2, the biggest win of the day. Xander Schauffele, the world No. 2, posted a stunning birdie-birdie finish to lead himself and Tony Finau to a 1 UP win over Ben An and Jason Day.

Here are the full Day 1 results.

📺 What we’re watching this weekend

⛳ We’re watching the Presidents Cup. Here’s how.

Friday

🏈 Virginia Tech at No. 7 Miami, 7:30 p.m. on ESPN
🏈 Washington at Rutgers, 8 p.m. on Fox

Saturday

🏈 Kentucky at No. 6 Ole Miss, noon on ABC
🏈 Minnesota at No. 12 Michigan, noon on Fox
🏈 No. 20 Oklahoma State at No. 23 Kansas State, noon on ESPN
🏈 Wisconsin at No. 13 USC, 3:30 p.m. on CBS
🏈 No. 15 Louisville at No. 16 Notre Dame, 3:30 p.m. on Peacock
🏈 Mississippi State at No. 1 Texas, 4:15 p.m. on SEC Network
🏈 No. 3 Ohio State at Michigan State, 7 p.m. on Peacock
⚾ Orioles at Twins OR Mets at Brewers, 7:15 p.m. on Fox
🏈 No. 2 Georgia at No. 4 Alabama, 7:30 p.m. on ABC
🏈 No. 19 Illinois at No. 9 Penn State, 7:30 p.m. on NBC
🏈 Arizona at No. 10 Utah, 10:15 p.m. on ESPN
🏈 No. 8 Oregon at UCLA, 10:30 p.m. on Fox

Sunday

🏈 Vikings at Falcons, 1 p.m. on CBS
🏈 Steelers at Colts, 1 p.m. on CBS
🏈 Eagles at Buccaneers, 1 p.m. on Fox
🏈 Saints at Falcons, 1 p.m. on Fox
🏀 Aces at Liberty Game 1, 3:30 p.m. on ABC
🏈 Commanders at Cardinals, 4:05 p.m. on Fox
🏈 Chiefs at Chargers, 4:25 p.m. on CBS
🏈 Bills at Ravens, 8:20 p.m. on NBC
🏀 Sun at Lynx Game 1, 8:30 p.m. on ESPN