Sports Brief: Oct. 7

Judge and Pujols make history

Both Albert Pujols and Aaron Judge made MLB history before the season came to a close. Pujols hit his 700th career home run on Sept. 23, becoming one of four players in the history of the MLB to join the 700 home run club. 

Judge broke the American League and Yankees team record for home runs in a season, hitting his 62nd home run for the season on Oct. 5. Judge ended up 11 home runs shy of the all-time record, which is held by Barry Bonds with 73 in the 2001 season.

MLB  postseason set to begin

The MLB season officially came to a close, and the playoffs will begin on Friday, Oct. 7 with the wild card series’, which are best of three games. 

The Cleveland Guardians are taking on the Tampa Bay Rays and the Seattle Mariners play the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League wild card. In the National League, the San Diego Padres play the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies face off against the St. Louis Cardinals. 

The full playoff picture and schedule can be found here.

College football update 

College football had some movement within the top 25 last week. The top six remained identical from last week, with Georgia remaining as the nation’s No. 1 team andAlabama at No. 2. Kansas made their first appearance inside the AP top 25 since 2009, coming in at No. 19. They are one of seven teams to crack the top 25 for the first time this season in this week’s poll alone. 

Oklahoma State jumped to No. 7 and Oklahoma dropped out of the top 25 after losing back to back games. 

The full top 25 can be found here. 

NFL week 4

The NFL is entering week five of the regular season and only one undefeated  team, the Philadelphia Eagles, remains. 

Cooper Rush became the first Dallas Cowboys quarterback to win their first four career starts. The backup quarterback, who is filling in for an injured Dak Prescott, won his only start last season and now has led the Cowboys to three straight wins to be 4-0 in his career. Rush will look to continue this streak within the next week as Prescott is confirmed out for week 5. 

Cole Beasley, who signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers mid-season, has officially retired after just one game with the team. Beasley began his career with the Dallas Cowboys in 2012 and signed with the Buffalo Bills in 2019. Beasley was not signed by any organization during the offseason, largely due to off-the-field controversy regarding the COVID-19 vaccine.