SEATTLE (AP) — Clayton Kershaw tossed 5 1/3 scoreless innings in the final regular-season start of his 18-year major league career and helped the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Seattle Mariners 6-1 on Sunday, Sep. 28.
Kershaw (11-2) scattered four hits, three of them singles, and struck out seven, including the last batter he faced — the Mariners’ Eugenio Suárez. The 37-year-old left-hander turned to his slider in the top of the sixth to retire Suárez for the 3,052nd strikeout of his career. He then left the game to a standing ovation from a sellout crowd at T-Mobile Park.
The Dodgers scored early and often against Mariners right-hander Bryce Miller (4-6). Hyeseong Kim hit a two-run home run in the second inning and Freddie Freeman added a two-run shot in the third.
After Miller departed , Los Angeles two-way star Shohei Ohtani hit his franchise-record 55th home run of the season. Andy Pages added an RBI single in the eighth inning to complete the Dodgers’ scoring.
Seattle slugger Cal Raleigh went 1 for 3 in his regular-season finale, finishing with 125 RBIs and a major league-leading 60 homers.
The NL West champion Dodgers (93-69) won five fewer games than last year, while the AL West-winning Mariners (90-72) won five more games.
Seattle drew 2,537,817 fans this season, just shy of its 2024 total of 2,555,813.
Key moment
With two away in a scoreless contest, Kim turned on an elevated fastball from Miller and sent it into the right-field seats for the third home run of the rookie’s major league career.
Key stat
Ohtani’s 55th home run topped the single-season record he set in 2024 for the Dodgers, his first season with the franchise. He also topped 100 RBIs for the third time in his MLB career.
Up next
The Dodgers will face the Cincinnati Reds in Game 1 of the NL Wild Card series on Tuesday.
The Mariners will take on the winner of the first-round series between the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Guardians in the AL Division Series starting Saturday.
