‘This is how I want my career to end’: In magical final season, one last playoff push for Albert Pujols
THE 35-FOOT WALK from the on-deck circle to the batter’s box at Busch Stadium has become habitual to Albert Pujols. He has made it more than 2,000 times throughout his career (4,000 if you count the old place). But something about it felt different on Sept. 2, when he was announced as a seventh-inning pinch-hitter in an otherwise nondescript game against the fading Chicago Cubs. The air was a little more crisp, the atmosphere increasingly more tense. October was approaching, but it seemed as if the entire city was already there in spirit, anticipating what was on the horizon. Eleven years had passed since Pujols last experienced the allure of postseason baseball in St. Louis, but suddenly it was all familiar again. In that moment, it almost felt as if he never left.
“That night got to me,” Pujols said. “It hit me. The noise — it was different.”
The finale of Pujols’ 22-year, Hall of Fame-worthy baseball career has often felt like a lavish dream. He returned to the place where he became an icon, reached the most distinguished of milestones and, at 42, became a major contributor on a division champion, playing at levels that no longer seemed attainable. As he languished through the better part of the last decade with the Los Angeles Angels, it often seemed as if an entire generation would grow up without ever truly experiencing Pujols’ greatness. And then there it was, one final hint of it at the very end. “A blessing,” Pujols called it. But the real prize awaits.
The St. Louis Cardinals begin their march through the postseason on Friday, hosting the Philadelphia Phillies in a best-of-three wild-card series. Pujols has spent the 2022 season driven largely by the prospect of hoisting the World Series trophy as a Cardinal for a third and final time, retiring alongside his beloved friend Yadier Molina with ski goggles over their eyes and champagne bottles in their hands. But the opportunity is just as important as the reward. Regardless of what happens, Pujols believes he has already won.
“This is how I want my career to end — with the fans, with the city, in the postseason,” Pujols told ESPN on a recent morning in San Diego. “Man, I wouldn’t change a thing.”
PUJOLS’ FINAL SEASON feels even more incredible when you consider its unlikelihood.
In 2021, Pujols basically rebranded himself in a span of five months, signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers around the middle of May — days after the Angels released him — and establishing himself as a clubhouse mentor and a lefty masher. Thriving on an elite, decorated Dodgers team and playing meaningful, high-intensity games in front of a rabid fan base allowed Pujols to tap back into an energy that was often lacking as he wasted away on Angels teams that continually went nowhere. But by the following spring, he was exhausted.
He had played deep into October for the first time in 10 years, then spent a stint in the Dominican Republic playing winter ball, making good on a promise to the fans of his home country. When February came and went, and the owners and players still hadn’t come to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement, Pujols wasn’t certain he’d ever play again. Then the lockout was lifted on March 10, a universal designated hitter was agreed to as part of it, and Pujols’ agent, Dan Lozano, implored him to come back.
“Danny,” Pujols recalled saying, “I’m freaking burned. I’m tired.”
But Pujols came around to the idea, consulted with his children and got their blessing. Fifteen days later, he said, he had offers from three teams — but the Cardinals weren’t one of them. Then their manager, Oliver Marmol, called.
It was a Friday. Pujols was in San Diego watching one of his daughters, Sophia, compete in a gymnastics meet at the convention center near Petco Park.
“You in shape?” Marmol asked.
“Wanna FaceTime to see?” Pujols responded.
But Marmol, at that point 35 years old and heading into his first season as a major league manager, didn’t need convincing. As spring training was winding down, he had pored over the roster with Cardinals bench coach Skip Schumaker and decided it’d be too risky to count so heavily on getting offense from the inexperienced Juan Yepez. A seasoned, right-handed-hitting DH was needed, and Pujols, Marmol thought, qualified as an ideal fit. But Opening Day was in less than two weeks, and Pujols needed to get into camp if he wanted to play. He’d soon be flying to meet with the other teams, he told Marmol, and so the Cardinals needed to make something happen fast.
Later that day, Marmol made his pitch to Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak, who still needed time to think it over. There was lingering concern about the fit and the complexities of handling the final stages of an icon’s career. But by Sunday morning, Mozeliak began to come around. The Cardinals wrapped up a spring training game against the New York Mets in Port St. Lucie, Florida, later that afternoon. As Mozeliak hit traffic on his way back to Jupiter, he decided to call Pujols himself.
Pujols and Mozeliak had what Mozeliak described as an amicable reunion when the Angels played in St. Louis in 2019, but this qualified as their first phone conversation since Pujols departed as a free agent in the winter of 2011. Mozeliak wanted to make sure there was no lingering bad blood, that Pujols was invested in another full season of baseball and that he genuinely wanted to be a Cardinal again. Pujols disclosed that he had offers to play elsewhere but expressed what it would mean to reunite with Molina and Adam Wainwright and finish his career in a clubhouse with Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt, in a city with people who still adored him. Mozeliak was convinced.
At around 8 p.m., Mozeliak and Lozano hashed out the details of what became a one-year, $2.5 million contract. Pujols hopped on a red-eye flight hours later and was on the field, in full uniform, by Monday afternoon, emerging from the right-field corner to a standing ovation. One of the last hurdles between Mozeliak and Lozano hadn’t been money; it was about what would happen if it all went poorly.
“I just wanted to understand, ‘Could there be an exit ramp?'” Mozeliak recalled. “Luckily we never even had to explore it.”
PUJOLS WAS SLASHING only .215/.301/.376 by the All-Star break, producing a .676 OPS that stood 81 points below the league average. Then, in the second half, he hit like an MVP, batting .323/.388/.715 with 18 home runs, 48 RBIs and a 1.103 OPS that ranked second among those with at least 150 plate appearances — slightly ahead of Mike Trout, slightly behind Aaron Judge.
Schumaker, his teammate with the Cardinals from 2005 to 2011, believes being invited to the All-Star Game on July 19 and getting recognized by his peers “might have rejuvenated” Pujols. But something more tangible had occurred a few days earlier.
Pujols began toying with the idea of starting his hands slightly lower and holding the bat marginally more upright in order to shorten his path through the strike zone and potentially sync up more consistently with the high leg kick he had begun incorporating more regularly the prior summer. Pujols said he tried it during a pinch-hitting appearance against the Atlanta Braves on July 4, then used it in a start against Max Fried two days later. He produced two hits and decided to stick with it. The tweak is hardly distinguishable on video, especially to the untrained eye, but it’s a notable change for a man who has been meticulously sculpting his swing since childhood.
“It’s just a feeling, bro,” Pujols said. “It’s all about feeling.”
From Aug. 10-22, in a stretch of 29 plate appearances, Pujols homered seven times, the same total he produced through the season’s first four months.
On Aug. 10 in Colorado, he culminated a four-hit night with a home run.
On Aug. 14, in front of a near-capacity crowd in St. Louis, and against a Milwaukee Brewers team that was only a half-game behind in the NL Central, he homered twice, the last of which broke the game open in the eighth, triggering an emphatic “This is our house!” declaration before he bounded around the bases.
On Aug. 18 at home, he notched his first career pinch-hit grand slam.
On Aug. 20 in Phoenix, he homered twice.
On Aug. 22 in Chicago, he homered on a fastball level with his head, producing the game’s only run.
Suddenly, 700 home runs, a milestone that at various points seemed unattainable, was within reach. His career mark stood at 693 heading into the regular season’s last six weeks.
Pujols had been a force when facing lefties, against whom he slashed .393/.460/.964 after the All-Star break. But he also produced at elite levels against righties. And during the stretch run, the Cardinals, who increased their division lead by four games during Pujols’ August surge, relied on him as an everyday presence near the middle of the lineup.
He never looked back. Pujols produced an .839 OPS over the ensuing 32 days, a stretch that ended with the two-homer night that produced No. 700 in Los Angeles on Sept. 23. He homered three more times over his last five games, finishing his season with a .270/.345/.550 slash line and 24 home runs in 109 games. His adjusted OPS, of 154, was his highest in a dozen years.
“It literally looks like he’s in his 20s again,” Pujols’ oldest son, AJ, said. “He’s so happy right now. I can just tell.”
ON THE FRONT lines of Pujols’ success this year has been Chris Conroy, an assistant athletic trainer for the Cardinals who has acted as one of the sport’s most important curators of history. Ten years ago, at the request of former Cardinals manager Mike Matheny, Conroy began collecting important baseballs and marking them with their milestones, assuming a role previously filled by longtime trainer Barry Weinberg. He figured he’d make them look nice, so he found a book on handwriting, bought a special pen and came up with what he describes as “some bastardized version of calligraphy” to note specific dates and numbers and context.
This season — given Pujols’ feats, the history between Molina and Wainwright as a battery, and the 13 rookies who debuted for the Cardinals — Conroy estimates writing on something in the neighborhood of 50 baseballs. For Pujols alone, he believes, it’s about a dozen.
The highlight, of course, was home run No. 700, a milestone previously only reached by Aaron, Ruth and Barry Bonds. But that baseball wasn’t retrieved. Pujols also surpassed Bonds to set a new record for the most home runs against different pitchers, now at 458, and the most go-ahead homers since 1961, now at 263. He reached 2,200 RBIs, 3,000 games, 1,900 runs and 1,400 extra-base hits, all of which deserved keepsakes.
“It’s incredible,” Conroy said. “There’s always something.”
But Pujols’ final season has been defined just as much by moments as it has been by milestones. Like double-high-fiving Nelly or pitching in his first game or being surrounded by fellow All-Stars in the middle of the Home Run Derby or walking off the field with Molina and Wainwright by his side in the home finale. Like the two crying Cardinals fans who embraced after watching him hit No. 696 or one Pirates fan who Pujols told to hold on to No. 697 to commemorate her father’s passing or the tens of thousands of Dodger fans who saluted him in the hours before he’d connect on No. 700.
Like the dozens of teammates whose careers have been shaped by his guidance this season.
“I’m telling you that if you go to every player, they’ll have a story about how he impacted them this year — bringing them into the cage, sitting him down, telling him, ‘What are you thinking on the bases?’ ‘What are you thinking out there on the infield?'” Schumaker said. “It’s not only on the offensive side; it’s defensively and baserunning, pitch-tipping from our own pitchers. It’s every guy.”
THERE HAVE BEEN times this season when Pujols has noticeably struggled to contain his emotions, a rarity for a man hailed as “The Machine.” After he belted his 700th home run at Dodger Stadium — the place that in many ways resurrected his career — he found a hallway outside the visitors’ dugout so the cameras wouldn’t catch him crying. Ten days later, in an on-field ceremony honoring him and Molina, the tears nearly flowed again as he addressed his five children seated behind him.
Pujols became one of the greatest hitters in baseball history through unrelenting discipline and focus, hardly ever deviating from what resided directly in front of him. It was always this rep and this pitch and this at-bat, nothing else. This year, though, he has made a point of taking a step back to see the bigger picture. To appreciate the uniqueness of this moment, to notice how the fans have rallied around it — to realize that it’s almost over.
“It’s coming towards the end,” Pujols said. “A 37-year career playing baseball, since I was 5 years old, and we’re gonna put an end on it. I’m sure there’s gonna be some emotion running through me, through my family, but at the same time it’s just a blessing.”
A little more than six months ago and a little more than four minutes into his opening press conference as a member of the Cardinals, Pujols declared that this would be his final season in the major leagues. He held off on such pronouncements in 2021, even though it marked the end of the10-year, $240 million contract he initially signed with the Angels. But he wanted to do it early in 2022 for one simple reason: to guard himself against the temptation of coming back.
Endings are usually sloppy, even for the inner-circle Hall of Famers. Babe Ruth spent his final season with the Boston Braves and didn’t play beyond May. Willie Mays stumbled in the outfield as a Met to cap an otherwise brilliant career. Hank Aaron was a .229 hitter who played in only 85 games in his final year in Milwaukee. Ken Griffey Jr.’s career ended when he left the Seattle Mariners‘ clubhouse one early June and drove across the country without informing anyone.
But Pujols prefers to focus on the ones who found one last push. He brought up David Ortiz, one of his closest friends in the sport, who finished sixth in MVP voting in his 20th and final season in 2016. He envisioned a similar path for himself and found fuel in the many who didn’t believe he could follow it.
“There’s nothing that satisfies me more than that — when people doubt me and I prove them wrong,” Pujols said. “I get a little laugh out of it, because I know what I’m capable of doing when I’m healthy in this game.”
He believes he could keep playing, but he’s also at peace — both with how it’s gone and where it’s going.
“I can tell you that I can put my mind into next year and prepare myself and I can still play two or three more years if I want to,” Pujols said. “But I’m tired. I’m done. This is it. This is where Albert Pujols’ career ends.”
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Chris Low, ESPN Senior Writer
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Ryan Williams‘ only thought after he pulled in the most important catch of his young college football career was simple.
“I can’t get tackled,” he said late Saturday night.
In the open field, few defenders have tackled Alabama‘s dynamic freshman wide receiver, and it was his 75-yard touchdown catch — complete with an electrifying spin move and dash to the end zone — that helped No. 4 Alabama hold on for a thrilling 41-34 win over No. 2 Georgia at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
In real time, Williams joked the spin move felt as if were “in slow motion.” But when he watched it on the stadium’s video screen, he said it looked a little faster.
“I just had to do my part in helping us finish that game,” Williams said. “We’d come too far. Somebody had to make a play.”
In a game the Crimson Tide once led 28-0, they suddenly found themselves trailing 34-33 with a little more than two minutes left after a furious Georgia rally. Williams and quarterback Jalen Milroe didn’t waste any time answering. On first down, Milroe delivered the pass right where he wanted to, on Williams’ back shoulder. Once he gathered it in, Williams did a pirouette around Georgia defensive back Julian Humphrey and left a vapor trail down the right sideline.
“Man, when I first saw him, he was this skinny kid,” Alabama linebacker Jihaad Campbell said. “Then you got him on the practice field, and he’s been doing things like that ever since. That’s just who he is.”
As in the most dynamic true freshman in college football.
Through four games, Williams has caught five touchdown passes and is averaging 28.9 yards per catch. He also had an incredible 54-yard bobbling catch in the third quarter against Georgia to set up a field goal.
“He’s only going to get better, and the best thing about him is that he’s always working, always doing something to become a better player, the work in the dark that not everyone sees,” said Milroe, who passed for 374 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 117 yards and two touchdowns.
Campbell said the poise on the Alabama sideline, starting with coach Kalen DeBoer, was never more apparent than in those final minutes when Georgia roared all the way back to take the lead after trailing 30-7 at the half.
“That’s the standard at Alabama, and it just filters down to the players, to everybody,” Campbell said.
As the Alabama offense trotted back onto the field, Williams said he didn’t need to nudge Milroe or even give a quick wave to his quarterback once Williams lined up for the play. Yes, he wanted the ball and knew Milroe would find a way to get it to him.
“Nah, I ain’t got to be a mailbox. He knows what’s up,” said Williams, who finished with six catches for 177 yards and now has six catches of 40 yards or longer on the season.
Clearly, there’s a budding connection between Milroe and Williams.
“He knows four plus two equals six,” Williams said, referring to Milroe’s number and his number, respectively. “I know four plus two equals six. The ball’s just got to go in the air.”
Even so, this is rare air for someone Williams’ age. He’s only 17 and doesn’t turn 18 until Feb. 9. He wasn’t even born when Nick Saban was named Alabama’s coach in 2007.
With Saban watching from his suite, as Alabama beat Georgia for the ninth time in the past 10 meetings, Williams was only one of two freshmen who helped the Crimson Tide continue their mastery of Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs.
Georgia, attempting to make another mad dash to tie the score, moved to the Alabama 20 with just under a minute to play. But on first down, quarterback Carson Beck lofted a pass to the end zone that a leaping Zabien Brown intercepted.
Just like Williams, Brown also wears No. 2, and he’s also a true freshman.
Williams said he and Brown were playing the “EA Sports College Football” video game Friday night when Brown called the winning interception while they were playing.
“So this morning I was like, ‘Bro, you’re going to catch a pick?'” Williams said. “And he was like, ‘Of course that’s what I’m going to try to do.’ Next thing you know, he’s got the game-winning interception. I was like, ‘Man, we called it.’ I was screaming. That’s how I lost my voice, because I was screaming.”
Milroe laughed when asked what it said about Alabama’s program that two true freshmen would make such a big impact in a top-five matchup.
“Recruiting,” Milroe said, chuckling. “Nah, one thing I can say about those guys is they work really hard, and I’m all about a guy working in the dark. I see them working on their craft after practice. I see them communicating, and they do a really good job constantly of trying to build and acknowledging that they’re not a finished product.
“I think that’s so important for our football team, just to keep on climbing.”
DeBoer and the Alabama staff worked overtime to land Williams, who was ESPN’s No. 3 overall prospect in the 2024 signing class. Williams had been committed to the Crimson Tide but decommitted right after Saban retired.
DeBoer said he has been impressed by how good Williams is after the catch.
“He’s doing it over and over again, getting the ball in his hands and making people miss and getting a lot of yards after contact,” DeBoer said.
Milroe added: “It’s what we do from here that matters, building on this. What we’re seeing now is all the work we put in this offseason, the way the coaches believed in us and then some of the younger guys we brought in. Just got to keep growing, all of us.”
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David Schoenfield, ESPN Senior Writer
Travis d’Arnaud hit the biggest home of the season for the Atlanta Braves. Fans of the New York Mets are in a state of panic. Paul Skenes delivered two more scoreless innings to cap off his stunning rookie season with a 1.96 ERA. Saturday is in the books. We have one full day of the regular season left — plus the Braves-Mets doubleheader Monday.
Here’s what to watch, starting with the National League wild-card race, where the Braves now have a one-game lead over the Mets and Arizona Diamondbacks as the three teams battle for two spots.
New York Mets at Milwaukee Brewers
The Brewers shut out the Mets 6-0 on Saturday, handing the Mets their first three-game losing streak since Aug. 11. When the Braves beat the Royals 2-1 later, it dropped the Mets behind the Braves in the standings for the first time since Sept. 4.
The Mets will start David Peterson on Sunday. The lefty has allowed five runs in two of his past three starts, although he has generally been effective since July, with a 2.90 ERA over his past 15 starts. The Brewers are locked into the third seed and will certainly rest all their top relievers as they get ready for Tuesday’s wild-card series. Colin Rea gets the start for Milwaukee, but expect a heavy bullpen game with the secondary relievers getting the action.
The Mets used their top three starters in this series: Sean Manaea on Friday, Jose Quintana on Saturday and now Peterson. That means Luis Severino and Tylor Megill are the likely starters for Monday’s doubleheader. The Braves do have a righty-heavy lineup and have an OPS nearly 70 points higher against lefties, so at least the Mets will have their two right-handed starters going Monday.
Kansas City Royals at Atlanta Braves
The Braves beat the Royals on d’Arnaud’s walk-off home run. Reynaldo Lopez returned from the injured list to make his first start for Atlanta since Sept. 10 and allowed just two hits and one run in six innings. The 2024 All-Star finishes the season with a 2.00 ERA in 25 starts (although he didn’t pitch enough innings to qualify for the ERA title).
The Braves’ gamble to hold off on starting probable Cy Young winner Chris Sale until absolutely needed has paid off. Sale could have started Friday, but the Braves have said they were going to hold him back until facing potential elimination. With a one-game lead in the wild-card race, the earliest that now could come would be the second game of the doubleheader against the Mets. The best-case scenario, of course, is that they clinch before using Sale and having him ready for Game 1 of the wild-card series.
As of Saturday night, manager Brian Snitker said the team hadn’t decided on a Sunday starter. Charlie Morton would be the starter with the most rest, but the Braves might want to save him for the Mets. That could leave Grant Holmes to face a slumping Kansas City offense.
Remember as well: The Braves lead the season series 6-5 over the Mets, meaning the tiebreaker between the two teams is still up for grabs.
San Diego Padres at Arizona Diamondbacks
The Padres blanked the Diamondbacks 5-0 on Saturday — the second shutout in four games for the high-powered Arizona attack and their fifth loss in six games as a wild-card spot that looked pretty safe a week ago is suddenly in jeopardy. Indeed, the key to remember here is the Diamondbacks lose the tiebreaker to both the Mets and Braves.
Sunday now feels like a must-win for Arizona. If they lose again, one win by the Mets on Sunday or in Monday’s doubleheader would eliminate the Diamondbacks.
With Zac Gallen in line to start the wild-card opener after pitching Wednesday, Brandon Pfaadt will start Sunday against Martin Perez. Pfaadt has been all over the place lately, getting knocked out in the third inning of his last start and in the second inning two starts ago, but sandwiched around a 12-strikeout game.
American League wild card
Lots of this was settled Friday night: First, before a boisterous crowd of 44,435 fans at Comerica Park, the Tigers beat the White Sox 4-1 to win their sixth straight game and clinch their first playoff spot since 2014. They had been tied with the Angels for the longest active playoff drought in the majors.
The Royals backed into their first postseason since 2015 when the Twins lost.
The Orioles clinched the fourth seed in beating Minnesota. The Tigers are one game up on the Royals for the fifth seed, but the Royals hold the tiebreaker in case they finish with the same record. The fifth seed will play at Baltimore while the sixth seed will play at Houston in the wild-card series (the higher seed gets all home games). The good news for the both the Tigers and Royals is they can save Tarik Skubal and Cole Ragans for the first games of the wild-card series, rather than having to start them Sunday.
Battles for the best record and top seed
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The Dodgers clinched both the top seed in the NL and the top seed overall (the fourth time in eight season the Dodgers finished with MLB’s best record). That leaves the Phillies as the No. 2 seed in the NL.
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Despite a 9-4 loss to the Pirates as Luis Gil served up four home runs, the Yankees clinched the top seed in the AL when the Guardians lost, making Cleveland the No. 2 seed.
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The No. 5 and No. 6 seeds in both leagues remain unsettled. The Tigers have a one-game lead over the Royals in the AL, but the Royals hold the tiebreaker if they finish with the same record.
The Shohei Ohtani watch … continues
The man is not slowing down. You thought we were done with Ohtani milestones after he cleared 50/50? No way. He went 2-for-5 with his 58th stolen base in Saturday’s blowout win over Colorado — his 35th consecutive stolen base without getting caught. Going back to his 6-for-6 game, he’s an incredible 26-for-39, a .667 average.
What can he do if he plays Sunday? He’s at 99 extra-base hits; the last players to reach 100 did it in 2001. And the Triple Crown is in play. Ohtani raised his average to .310. League leader Luis Arraez didn’t play Saturday, so remains at .314. It will be interesting to see if Arraez sits again on his .314 average and forces Ohtani to have a big day to catch him.
If Ohtani goes 4-for-5, he would be hitting .31397. Arraez is currently at .31388.
Other statistical races at play
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Can Aaron Judge get to 60 home runs? Judge was back in the lineup Saturday after a day off, but went 0-for-5 with five strikeouts. That dropped his slugging percentage to .701 as he tries to become the first player to slug .700 since Barry Bonds in 2004. The last player to do so outside of the 1994 to 2004 window was Ted Williams in 1957.
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Ohtani already passed 400 total bases, the first time that was done since 2001. Judge is at 392 so would likely need a two-homer finale to get there.
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Bobby Witt Jr. now looks like a lock for the AL batting title. He has held the lead all summer, and when he peaked with a .352 average on Aug. 16, he held a comfortable 19-point lead over Judge (and 33 points over Vladimir Guerrero Jr.). After sitting Saturday, Witt remained at .332, but Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went 0-for-4 to fall to .324 while Judge dropped to .322 (which also eliminates his chance of a Triple Crown).
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Jose Ramirez hit his 39th home run Saturday, so needs one more to join the exclusive 40/40 club, which has just six members: Ohtani, Ronald Acuna Jr. (2023), Alfonso Soriano (2006), Alex Rodriguez (1998), Barry Bonds (1996) and Jose Canseco (1998).
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Ryan Helsley of the Cardinals has 49 saves; 50 saves has been achieved 17 times, the last by Edwin Diaz in 2018.
Saying goodbye
Joey Votto, who didn’t play in the majors this season after signing a minor league contract with the Blue Jays, announced his retirement a few weeks ago, and his next stop will eventually be receiving a Hall of Fame plaque in Cooperstown. Two longtime outfielders have also officially announced their retirements at the end of the season:
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Los Angeles Dodgers CF Kevin Kiermaier: It’s not clear whether Kiermaier will make the Dodgers’ playoff roster as a backup outfielder (he has hit .164 with the Dodgers and has started just two games in September), so this could be it for one of the best defensive center fielders of all time. Yes, all time. Kiermaier has won four Gold Gloves, displaying incredible lateral range during his heyday with the Tampa Bay Rays. His 38 defensive runs saved in 2015 is the best single-season total for a center fielder since DRS began in 2003, and his career total of 173 is the most for any outfielder since 2003 (and third most at any position, behind only Andrelton Simmons and Adrian Beltre). Kiermaier’s defensive excellence is reflected in his career WAR of 36.1. Not bad for a 31st-round pick from Parkland Community College.
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Colorado Rockies DH/OF Charlie Blackmon: Blackmon has spent his entire 14-year career with the Rockies. It took him a while to get situated in the big leagues — his first full season didn’t come until he was 27 years old — but he went on to become a four-time All-Star and finished fifth in the 2017 NL MVP voting after leading the league in batting average (.331), hits (213) and runs (137). His power declined after that 2016 to 2019 peak, but he’s one of the most popular players in Rockies history and will finish with more than 1,800 hits in the majors.
There might be a few other veterans playing their final games who just haven’t yet announced their retirements. Matt Carpenter comes to mind here. Kyle Hendricks wants to pitch in 2025, but he heads into free agency, and his start Saturday at Wrigley Field will likely be his final one after 11 seasons with the Chicago Cubs. Let’s hope Andrew McCutchen returns to the Pittsburgh Pirates for another season after he put up solid numbers in 2024. If these guys don’t return — thanks for the memorable careers.
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Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior Writer
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama blew a 28-point lead against No. 2 Georgia at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday night.
And then the No. 4 Crimson Tide broke the Bulldogs’ hearts again in a 41-34 victory in which the SEC heavyweights scored touchdowns on consecutive plays from scrimmage late in the fourth quarter.
Alabama didn’t seal the victory until cornerback Zabien Brown intercepted quarterback Carson Beck‘s pass to receiver Colbie Young in the end zone with 43 seconds left to end Georgia’s furious rally.
After the Bulldogs rallied from a 23-point deficit at halftime, they took their first lead on Beck’s 67-yard touchdown to Dillon Bell to make it 34-33 with 2:31 to go.
But Alabama scored on its very next play from scrimmage. On first-and-10 from the Crimson Tide 25, quarterback Jalen Milroe threw a deep ball down the right sideline for freshman Ryan Williams. The receiver spun out of cornerback Julian Humphrey‘s tackle at the 8-yard line and beat safety KJ Bolden for a 75-yard touchdown with 2:18 remaining. Milroe threw a 2-point conversion to receiver Germie Bernard to give Alabama a 41-34 lead.
Milroe completed 27 of 33 passes for 374 yards with two touchdowns and ran for 117 yards with two scores. He is the first player in FBS history with 300 passing yards, 100 rushing yards and 2 rushing touchdowns against an AP top-five opponent, according to ESPN Research.
Williams, a 17-year-old freshman, had six catches for 177 yards with one score.
Beck recovered from a slow start to complete 27 of 50 passes for 439 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions. He also lost a fumble and was sacked three times.
The loss ended Georgia’s 42-game winning streak in the regular season, which was the longest run by an FBS team since Oklahoma won 45 in a row from 1953 to 1957. It also snapped Georgia’s 16-game winning streak on the road.
It was new Tide coach Kalen DeBoer’s first meeting with Georgia, but the results were the same for Alabama. It has won nine of its past 10 games against Georgia, including a 27-24 victory in last year’s SEC championship game, which led to the Bulldogs failing to make the College Football Playoff.
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