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The best games of October 2026

By Vivek Tanna ·

October is the most crowded month on the sports calendar. The MLB postseason ran right up to a World Series clincher on October 28. The WNBA playoffs went all the way to a Game 7 on Halloween. The Copa Libertadores settled its semifinals, college football hit the middle of conference play, and the NHL started its season. There was more on every night than anyone could watch.

So here's what I'd have watched if I could only pick ten. This list is ranked by how worth watching each game turned out to be, across every sport we cover. Results are included, since it's a recap.

The top 10 games of October 2026

  1. Brewers at Rays, World Series Game 4 (October 27). Rays 4, Brewers 3 in 12 innings. MLB. Cooper Pratt homered in the top of the 12th to put Milwaukee one win from the title. Tampa Bay answered with two runs in the bottom half for a walk-off that kept its season alive and cut the series to 3-1. Pratt went 4-for-5 in the loss.
  2. Valkyries at Aces, WNBA Semifinals Game 3 (October 9). Valkyries 87, Aces 77 in overtime. WNBA. Las Vegas forced overtime, then Golden State outscored them 16-6 in the extra period to finish a 3-0 sweep and reach the Finals. A'ja Wilson had 21 and 10 in the loss. Two days earlier, Game 2 went 83-81 to the Valkyries behind Tiffany Hayes (21) and Gabby Williams (20).
  3. Estudiantes at Flamengo, Copa Libertadores semifinal, second leg (October 22). 0-0 after extra time, Estudiantes won 3-2 on penalties. Copa Libertadores. Two legs and 210 minutes without a goal, and it still made the list. Rodríguez was sent off in the 50th minute, Estudiantes held on through extra time, then won the shootout to reach the final. The first leg was 0-0 too, with Flamengo outshooting Estudiantes 21 to 5.
  4. Liberty at Dream, WNBA Semifinals Game 2 (October 7). Dream 101, Liberty 98 in overtime. WNBA. Atlanta won in overtime to go up 2-0 on New York. Game 3 was just as tight: the Dream won 85-83 to sweep, with Angel Reese scoring 22 while Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones had 26 each for the Liberty.
  5. Rays at Brewers, World Series Game 2 (October 24). Brewers 5, Rays 4. MLB. Milwaukee fell behind by four, got even on Frelick's sixth-inning homer, and took the lead for good in the seventh. That made it 2-0 in the Series.
  6. Fluminense at Palmeiras, Copa Libertadores semifinal, second leg (October 21). Fluminense 1, Palmeiras 0 after extra time; Palmeiras won 5-3 on penalties. Copa Libertadores. Palmeiras brought a 2-1 lead from the first leg. Hércules scored in the 82nd minute to level the tie at 2-2, and it went all the way to a shootout, where Palmeiras made all five.
  7. Dodgers at Brewers, NLCS Game 1 (October 11). Brewers 2, Dodgers 1. MLB. Brice Turang tied it with a solo homer in the fourth and Luis Lara singled in the go-ahead run in the fifth. Milwaukee went on to sweep, finishing it in Game 4 by erasing a 4-0 deficit to win 6-4, with Jake Bauers driving in three.
  8. Rays at Yankees, ALDS Game 3 (October 7). Rays 4, Yankees 3. MLB. Victor Mesa Jr.'s two-run homer in the sixth put Tampa Bay ahead for good and ended New York's season in a 3-0 sweep.
  9. Rays at Brewers, World Series Game 1 (October 23). Brewers 3, Rays 2. MLB. Milwaukee scored twice in the first, Tampa Bay cut it to one, and the Brewers got the deciding run in the seventh. Jonathan Aranda went 3-for-3 for the Rays. Milwaukee closed out the Series in Game 5 on October 28, winning 4-1 behind 5.2 scoreless innings from Misiorowski.
  10. Dream at Valkyries, WNBA Finals Game 7 (October 31). Valkyries 68, Dream 63. WNBA. A Finals that went the distance, decided on the last day of the month. Williams scored 30 as Golden State won the title 4-3. The series opened the same way, with the Valkyries erasing an 8-point deficit in Game 1.

Best of the rest, by sport

College football

No. 2 Georgia won 20-17 at No. 6 Alabama on October 10. Georgia led 10-0, Alabama scored 14 straight to go into half-time ahead, and Peyton Woodring's 23-yard field goal with 5:25 left decided it. A week later, No. 4 Ohio State beat No. 5 Indiana 19-15 in Bloomington. Jeremiah Smith's 38-yard touchdown catch made it 19-7 early in the fourth, and Indiana answered with a touchdown and a two-point conversion but never got closer. And on October 24, No. 19 Texas beat No. 7 Ole Miss 34-27 after letting a 24-3 lead slip away; Ole Miss scored three straight touchdowns to tie it, and Arch Manning's 1-yard run put Texas back in front with eight minutes left. More at college football tonight.

NHL

The Oilers made a habit of it early. On October 22 they came back from 4-2 down to beat the Hurricanes 6-5 in a shootout, with Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid each putting up two goals and three assists and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scoring the shootout's only goal. Two nights before, they blew a 3-1 lead to the Wild and won 4-3 in overtime on Bouchard's goal 3:32 in. More at NHL tonight.

Tennis

Davidovich Fokina lost the first set of the Shanghai Masters final 1-6 to No. 12 seed Jodar on October 18, then won the next two 7-6, 6-4 for the title.

Golf

Yoshida started the final round of the LPGA's BMW Ladies Championship four shots back, shot 68, and won by one at 17 under.

Racing

Antonelli won the United States Grand Prix on October 25, ahead of Leclerc and Verstappen, and stretched his championship lead over Russell to 340 points to 238. The same day, Kyle Larson won at Talladega.

About this list

The Lineup Is is an iPhone app I build that ranks every game by whether it's worth watching, live and before it starts. Ratings here use our scoring as of November 12, which gives regular-season overtime and early upset leads less weight than it used to. November's list comes December 1.

Get The Lineup Is on iOS — free — or see tonight's best games ranked right now. More from the blog.