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

This is an article version of the CBS Sports HQ AM Newsletter, the ultimate guide to every day in sports. You can sign up to receive it in your inbox every weekday morning here.

⚾ Good morning to everyone but especially…

THE NEW YORK YANKEES AND THE LOS ANGELES Dodgers

For the second time in three years, the yankees is AL East championand with a historic duo and an ascruch 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 victory guaranteed New York a bye into the divisional series.

Judge and Juan Soto endured numbers comparable to some of the best duos ever and combined for 99 home runs this season. Besides them, Gleyber Torres came around recently as the leadoff hitter and Austin Wells 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 ton of options.

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

The Dodgersmeanwhile, claimed their 11th NL West title in 12 years with a 7-2 win over the parents. 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. It is Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernandez in 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 is the picture of the finalwith four points up for grabs. Things will go all the way through Monday, by the way, so the Braves and Mets can make up their games delayed by Hurricane Helene.

Finally, here it is Matt Snyder’s awards predictions.

😁 Honorable mentions

🥲 And not such a good morning for…

FANS OF THE OAKLAND ATHLETICS

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

That is poet Dylan Thomas in 1947. And in 2024, fans of the Oakland Athletics paid attention, with 46,889 fans — full of emotions and alcohol — packing the Oakland Coliseum for the final home game of the Athletics 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. Rangers collected dirt for fans as souvenirs. 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 is now running them out of town. Then he had the audacity to write to fans that it was “so very hard.” Yes, that’s right. In the last five years, Oakland lost the Athletics, the raiders and the Warriors. It has uprooted lives and robbed fan houses. It just stinks.

Thanks for the memories, you little engine that could (and did), you “Moneyball” experts, you four-time champions. RJ 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 passed the Giants 20-15 to improve to 2-2 on the season. Dak Prescott threw a pair of touchdowns and earned his 13th straight win over the Giants, the second longest streak by one quarterback against a single opponent on record (Bob Griese won 17 straight against the Invoices.)

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

Furthermore, this victory may have come at a cost later Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence left with injuries. Giants star rookie Malik Nabers too suffered a concussion.

It’s hard to win in the NFL. It was a short week on the road. Prescott was effective, and the defense, one week after being cut, allowed a franchise-low 1.1 yards per rush (min. 20 carries). Dallas may not be the host as they have been in recent years, but this was a much-needed win.

There are a lot of great Week 4 games to come, but in my eyes, the best one is Bills-Ravens on sunday night. In his choicesJohn Breech says…

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

Vikings Packers is an awfully close second, though, especially if Jordan Love (knee) comes back. He would be greeted by a Minnesota defense that confused the best of the game, and that of Chris Trapasso. 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 go with…

• Pirates over Eagles
• Steelers over Colts
• Bengals over Panthers

🏈 Georgia-Alabama is college football year-to-date, excluding Week 5 picks

Well, I know how I’m going to spend 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 — 13-12 more. Kentucky — raised many questions about Kirby Smartthe set of. We have a lot of preview content suitable for such a big game:

And, surprise, this one leads Tom Fornelli’s Six-Pack of choices.

• Oven: “I’m a little worried about Georgia! … It’s not totally out of character for this team to play with their food, but it usually turns things on at the end of those games. That didn’t happen against Kentucky. Up top, they’re off guard Tate Ratledge (ankle) for probably a month or more, and they are struck in other places 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)
• #19 Illinois at #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…

⛳ USA cruises 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 United States leads the International team 5-0 after the first day of the Cup of Presidents, striking of historical proportions.

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

That’s not to say there weren’t some close matches, nor to say it wasn’t hot. 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 “What was that?!” shout out to Kim At eight o’clock, Kim and Im left the green early, not even looking at a Scheffler putt that ruffled feathers.

Finally, the International team messed with the bull and got the horns … and the US has a ton of bulls. Scheffler, the world number 1, and Henley defeated Kim and Im 3 & 2, the biggest victory of the day. Xander Schauffelethe world No. 2, posted a stunning birdie putt to lead himself and Tony Finau to 1 UP win over Ben An and Jason Day.

Here are the full results from Day 1.

📺 What we’re watching this weekend

⛳ We’re looking at the Presidents’ Cup. Here’s how.

friday

🏈 Virginia Tech at No. 7 Miami7:30 pm on ESPN
🏈 Washington at Rutgers8 pm at Fox

saturday

🏈 Kentucky at No. 6 Ole Missnoon on ABC
🏈 Minnesota at No. 12 Michigannoon on Fox
🏈 No. 20 Oklahoma State at No. 23 Kansas Statenoon on ESPN
🏈 Wisconsin at No. 13 USC3:30 pm on CBS
🏈 No. 15 Louisville at No. 16 Notre Dame3:30 pm on Peacock
🏈 Mississippi State at No. 1 Texas4:15 pm on SEC Network
🏈 No. 3 Ohio State at Michigan State19 h on Pavo
⚾ Orioles at Twins OR Mets at Brewers19:15 at Fox
🏈 No. 2 Georgia at No. 4 Alabama7:30 pm on ABC
🏈 #19 Illinois at #9 Penn State7:30 pm on NBC
🏈 Arizona at No. 10 Utah10:15pm on ESPN
🏈 #8 Oregon at UCLA22:30 at Fox

sunday

🏈 Vikings at Falcons1 pm on CBS
🏈 Steelers at Colts1 pm on CBS
🏈 Eagles at Buccaneers13h at Fox
🏈 Saints at Falcons13h at Fox
🏀 Aces at Liberty Game 13:30 pm on ABC
🏈 Commanders at Cardinals4:05 pm at Fox
🏈 Chiefs at Chargers4:25 pm on CBS
🏈 Bills at Ravens8:20 pm on NBC
🏀 Sun at Lynx Game 18:30pm on ESPN