Kershaw works 5 1/3 scoreless innings in final regular-season start as Dodgers top Mariners 6-1
Seattle Mariners' Cal Raleigh singles against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the eighth inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025, in Seattle.
AP Photo/John Froschauer
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.
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.
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.