{"id":192224,"date":"2025-09-30T12:15:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T12:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/192224\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T12:15:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T12:15:09","slug":"a-guide-to-sports-busy-week-starting-with-the-mlb-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/192224\/","title":{"rendered":"A guide to sports\u2019 busy week, starting with the MLB playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pulse Newsletter \ud83d\udce3 | This is The Athletic\u2019s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here<\/a> to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

Good morning! Don\u2019t get canned today.<\/p>\n

While You Were Sleeping: Football technically happened last night<\/p>\n

With all due respect to the professional athletes risking their health for our entertainment last night, I\u2019m not sure if the NFL\u2019s Monday night twofer was particularly interesting or insightful. But football is king, so here we are.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Quick reads before we move on:\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Dolphins beat the Jets for their first win of the season, but lost Tyreek Hill<\/a> to a gnarly dislocated knee in the second half. Miami is still in rough shape, while New York has started the Aaron Glenn era 0-4. Woof on both accounts.
In the nightcap, Denver cruised past an outmatched Cincinnati team, 28-3. It is painful to watch a Bengals team built to survive via its offense\/MVP candidate quarterback Joe Burrow, who\u2019s out until at least December with an injury, play without him. I can\u2019t say the Broncos were overly impressive, but Cincinnati just had no chance<\/a>. Tough watch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Enough of that. Onward:<\/p>\n

Roadmaps: Here\u2019s your cheat sheet<\/p>\n

Quietly, we have arrived in the busiest part of the fall sports calendar. Football is fully in motion. The NBA is holding media days this week. The NHL is already playing preseason games. MLB begins its postseason today, and the WNBA Finals start this week, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sifting through all that glorious sports content can be difficult. I decided to host a brief digital roundtable to help preview some of this week\u2019s shenanigans so you can watch the right thing and sound smart doing it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with baseball. I rang up Andy McCullough<\/a> for help:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hello, Andy. I need two things from you: a World Series prediction and the one thing you\u2019re most interested to watch in these playoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis could look really silly on Friday morning, because both teams could already be eliminated, but I\u2019m taking the Dodgers over the Yankees. The Yankees were excellent in September, have a great 1-2 pitching duo of Max Fried and Carlos Rod\u00f3n and still employ Aaron Judge. As for the Dodgers: They never played like a super-team, but they still have more talent than any other club. I think their starting rotation \u2014 led by Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, and, of course, Shohei Ohtani \u2014 will carry them.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs for the most interesting thing: The Milwaukee Brewers put together the best record in baseball by playing with relentless energy and paying attention to detail. The team has been a postseason mainstay since 2018, but has only advanced beyond the National League Division Series once in that time. As the No. 1 overall seed, can the Brewers bring the World Series back to Milwaukee for the first time since 1982?\u201d<\/p>\n

Compelling. I\u2019m rooting for a Phillies-Mariners World Series on vibes alone. See our entire MLB staff\u2019s Wild Card Series predictions<\/a>, and remember these first matchups are best of three. Things could get weird.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s move to the NBA, where Zach Harper saved the day for me:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Welcome, Zach. Tell me the one non-Clippers thing that intrigues you most during media days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s keep this with some good ol\u2019 West Coast bias and say the Lakers are incredibly fascinating. It\u2019s not just that Luka Don\u010di\u0107 is in shape and we want to see how this goes with him leading the Lakers for a full season. It\u2019s that LeBron James is not the focal point of a team for the first time ever, and we want to see how this goes. After the incredibly awkward statement<\/a> following LeBron picking up his player option, I\u2019m curious what his comments and demeanor are this season.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

James, 40, was cagey<\/a> about his future yesterday. Across town, Kawhi Leonard denied any wrongdoing<\/a> in the ongoing Aspiration scandal, and Zach told me expects commissioner Adam Silver to play it safe in any Clippers punishment. Hm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sign up for The Bounce<\/a> for Zach\u2019s indispensable thoughts all season.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Brian Babineau \/ NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n

We\u2019re finishing with the NHL, where Sean Gentille<\/a> played guide:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lovely to see you, Sean. What are the 1-2 things you, the expert, are most interested in during the lead-up to the season?<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom now until February, the Olympics are going to dominate the discourse. That\u2019s as it should be \u2014 NHL players haven\u2019t been involved since 2014. Pretty much a full generation of stars have missed out on the experience, and it\u2019s a big deal. After that, it\u2019s going to be all eyes on Connor McDavid. He\u2019s the best player on Earth, he doesn\u2019t have a contract<\/a> with Edmonton for next season and he\u2019s still trying to get over the hump in the Cup Final. If he doesn\u2019t win one now, when does it happen?\u201d<\/p>\n

The McDavid ordeal will be one we follow all season. Whew. We\u2019ll address the WNBA Finals tomorrow after the matchup is set (more on that in a bit).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s keep moving:<\/p>\n

News to Know\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Jeffrey Vest \/ Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Finebaum considers Senate run
ESPN personality and legendary radio host Paul Finebaum is weighing leaving his sports gig to run for an Alabama Senate seat, he said in an interview. Finebaum said he would run as a Republican, and recently relocated from Charlotte back to his hometown of Birmingham, Ala. The seat in question belongs to former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville, who\u2019s running for governor. See Finebaum\u2019s comments here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

MLB managers on the outs
The end of the season means playoff talk, sure, but it also means offseason business has begun for those not in the bracket. A quick smattering:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bruce Bochy is out in Texas after narrowly missing the postseason. Bochy, 70, won a World Series ring with the Rangers in 2023. It was a mutual decision<\/a>.
\nBob Melvin is done in San Francisco, which is slightly curious. The team has scuffled in his two seasons (161-163), but the Giants had just committed to him three months ago. Things changed, clearly<\/a>.
\nThe Twins fired Rocco Baldelli after seven seasons. It had to be done<\/a>.
\nIn New York, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza hung on to his job, but with caveats<\/a>. The rest of his staff might be gone. Mendoza leads my 2026 hot seat list already.<\/p>\n

More news<\/p>\n

Electronic Arts, parent company of all EA Sports games, is going private after a consortium including the Saudi Public Investment Fund bought EA for $55 billion. Read our full report<\/a>.
\nColorado has condemned \u201creligious slurs\u201d directed at BYU by Buffaloes fans last weekend. More here<\/a>.
\nTests confirmed that Giants wideout Malik Nabers tore his ACL<\/a>. Brutal.
\nHouston traded OT Cam Robinson to the Browns. See the details<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udceb\u00a0Love The Pulse? Check out our other newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What to Watch<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa MLB: Tigers at Guardians
1 p.m. ET on ESPN
This is getting the placeholder treatment because we literally have playoff baseball all day from this point forward. And this might be the best game. All four games are on ESPN or ABC. See the full slate here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa WNBA: Fever at Aces
9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2
The winner of this goes to the WNBA Finals to face Phoenix. That\u2019s enough of a sell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Get tickets to games like these here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pulse Picks<\/p>\n

The Chicago Blackhawks selected Mason West in the first round of this year\u2019s NHL Draft. West has a bright hockey future ahead. The only hiccup: He\u2019s also a rising high school football star<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The most underrated MLB playoff asset: left-handed batting practice pitchers<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The new Heisman leader? That\u2019s Oregon QB Dante Moore<\/a>. We might have (sorry) more on him later this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some of the world\u2019s best athletes, including Victor Wembanyama and Shohei Ohtani, have a secret: the CLA training method. Jared Weiss illuminated the shadows for us<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jake Ciely has names for an early fantasy football waiver wire speed run. See the picks here<\/a> and profit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Rory McIlroy\u2019s spicy comments<\/a> about the Ryder Cup crowd.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most-read on the website yesterday: \u261d\ufe0f<\/p>\n

(Top photo: Brian Rothmuller \/ Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pulse Newsletter \ud83d\udce3 | This is The Athletic\u2019s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-192224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}