Clayton Kershaw pitched 5 1/3 scoreless innings in the final regular-season start of his illustrious 18-year career to lead the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 6-1 victory against the host Seattle Mariners on Sunday afternoon.
Shohei Ohtani hit his 55th homer of the season — breaking his own franchise record — and Hyeseong Kim and Freddie Freeman also went deep for the National League West champion Dodgers (93-69), who closed the regular season with five straight victories. Los Angeles will be the No. 3 seed in the NL playoffs and will host the Cincinnati Reds in the best-of-three wild-card round that begins Tuesday.
The American League West champion Mariners (90-72) were swept in the three-game interleague series after entering with 16 wins in their previous 17 games. Seattle claimed the AL’s second seed and earned a first-round bye.
Kershaw (11-2), who announced this month that he will retire after this season, allowed four hits, walked one and struck out seven.
After striking out Eugenio Suarez to open the bottom of the sixth, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts sent Freeman, the veteran first baseman, to the mound to take Kershaw out of the game. The left-hander, a three-time Cy Young Award winner and the 2014 NL Most Valuable Player who finishes his career with a 223-96 record and 2.53 ERA, left the field to a standing ovation from the sellout crowd at T-Mobile Park and received a curtain call.
Roberts announced before Sunday’s game that Kershaw wouldn’t be on the Dodgers’ roster for the wild-card round, meaning his career could be over should they be eliminated by the Reds. He would be eligible for selection in later playoff rounds if Los Angeles advances.
The Dodgers opened the scoring in the second as Michael Conforto drew a leadoff walk and Kim went deep to right-center with two outs off Mariners starter Bryce Miller (4-6).
In the third, Ohtani led off with a single to right and Freeman homered to left-center one out later.
Ohtani hit a 412-foot drive to center with two outs in the seventh off Gabe Speier.
The Dodgers increased their lead to 6-0 in the eighth as Dalton Rushing led off with a double and scored on Andy Pages’ two-out single.
The Mariners got on the board in the bottom of the inning as Randy Arozarena drew a walk, advanced to third on Cal Raleigh’s single to right and scored on a Suarez groundout. Raleigh went 1-for-3 with a walk to finish the year with an MLB-best 60 home runs.
Miller allowed four runs on five hits over four innings. The right-hander walked two and fanned two.
