by Megan Garcia
This was the way the Dodgers intended Clayton Kershaw to go out — a winner in his final career regular-season start.
Kershaw was surrounded by his infield when Freddie Freeman, in place of Dave Roberts, walked out of the Dodger dugout to pull the legendary left-hander. He shared hugs with the infield while the crowd at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park stood for an ovation.
As he walked into the dugout, waving to his family alongside the third base line, behind him was a lead the Dodgers never relinquished. The Dodgers beat the Mariners 6–1 on Sunday, providing Kershaw with his 223rd career win with the series sweep.
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Part of that offense was Shohei Ohtani’s new franchise record 55th home run of the season.
“I did everything I thought I needed to do,” Kershaw said. “I think my command wasn’t awesome with my fastball today, but the slider and the curve were pretty good; that kind of bailed me out when I needed it. I’m ready to go for whatever’s next.”
Next is the postseason. The Dodgers will face the Reds in the Wild Card Series at Dodger Stadium, with Game 1 scheduled for Tuesday.
“It’s a greedy group, a hungry group. It’s certainly a younger group, and we can’t take these guys lightly,” Roberts said. “These guys are coming in to win a series and they’re feeling good about themselves, so we’ve got to focus on ourselves and take it to them.”
The plan for Kershaw is that he will not be on the Wild Card roster. The veteran’s role is still to be determined if the Dodgers advance to the Division Series and beyond.
Kershaw pitched an inning in relief in Wednesday’s 5–4 win against the Diamondbacks. He pitched a perfect ninth on 15 pitches.
“I’ll take the next few days to recover from this one and then come Saturday, just be ready for anything,” Kershaw said. “That’s the part of the playoffs that’s exciting, and there’s part of the playoffs that you just can’t prepare for either. You just do what’s asked of you.”
Kershaw shut out the Mariners on Sunday through 5 1/3 scoreless innings. His seven strikeouts give him 3,052 in his career.
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Eugenio Suárez, who led off the sixth, was the final batter to face Kershaw. The at-bat ended with a swinging strikeout on Kershaw’s devasting slider.
The ball went directly into Kershaw’s back pocket as a keepsake.
“Doc told me I had the last hitter there, and no one was coming. I was kind of cashed out at that point,” Kershaw said. “I wasn’t expected to keep going, so it was weird (to see) Freddie come out, but obviously a great gesture.”
Kershaw ends the season with a 3.36 ERA in 22 starts (23 games) with 84 strikeouts and 35 walks in 112 2/3 innings pitched.
The offense was supported by the long ball to finish the sweep of the Mariners.
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Hyeseong Kim’s two-run homer put the Dodgers ahead in the second. It was his first home run since May 31. Then, Freddie Freeman added to the lead with a two-run homer in the third. It was Freeman’s 24th homer of the season.
Ohtani’s solo homer in the seventh set a new Dodger franchise record. Ohtani was the previous record-holder when he hit 54 home runs last season.
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He went 3-for-5 on Sunday to finish the regular season with a 31-game on-base streak. He slashed .284/.401/.647/1.048 in that span.
The Dodger offense outscored Seattle 14–6 in the series. Dodger pitchers racked up 41 strikeouts and issued nine walks in the three-game sweep.
The Dodgers and Kershaw go out a winner in the regular season finale was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.