Kershaw Ends Career with Gem; Mariners Fall to Dodgers 6-1 in Regular Season Finale
SEATTLE, Wash. — Leo Rivas popped out to third, and the 162nd game of the regular season came to a close, a 6-1 loss for a Mariners team that is hungry to win it all.
18 teams in Major League Baseball saw the final frame finish the year with dreams of championship unfulfilled and improvements needed in the offseason. Some, like the Rockies and White Sox, were all but out of it before the year began, while it took until the very last inning for the Mets to miss the dance. Leads and seeds reversed around baseball up until the end as every team played their games simultaneously.
Such chaos is still in the future for the Mariners and Dodgers. Both had clinched their seeds before they met for their first pitch in Seattle, giving the final three games of the year an exhibition quality for these two championship contenders.
That final series went the Dodgers’ way, played in front of three crowds that at times cheered louder for the visitors than they did for the home team. The first two had been close contests marked by Seattle’s inability to come through with runners on, but the third game had little drama between the two teams—though one moment will be remembered for a very long time.
Bryce Miller had the starting nod on Sunday. Although much about Seattle’s postseason journey is unknowable, this much can be discerned: Miller will not make any starts. Plagued by elbow inflammation for much of the year, he wasn’t able to find the groove he got into in 2024. Early in the year, his vice was the base on balls; since returning, his issue has been the longballs. He might end up seeing some innings out of the bullpen in the postseason, but the starting rotation will not be his purview again until 2026.
It was both the homer and the walk that bit Miller during his final start. Michael Conforto led off the second inning with a free pass, and although Miller put the next two guys away, Hyeseong Kim torched a high fastball far over the right center field wall. Kim, not much of a home run hitter, had his third longball of the season, and Los Angeles led 2-0.
The deep fly honors in the third, however, were done by a more expected bat, as Freddie Freeman whacked a hanging splitter high and deep to left field. Freeman echoed Ronaldinho with a lick of the lips as he watched the ball fly into the Mariners bullpen, landing for the Dodgers’ second two-run shot of the day.
At the very least, Miller finished off his regular season on a high note. The fourth inning was his only clean frame, starting off with a couple of groundouts to second, but the always dangerous Shohei Ohtani—who had knocked two hits already—came to the dish. Two fastballs at the top of the zone held Ohtani at bay, and rather than try and mix it up, Miller fired another heater up. Ohtani swung through it, looking off in the distance in disbelief as the fastball seemed to rise up out of the zone. It was the second of just two punchouts on the day for Miller.
On the other side of the rubber was Clayton Kershaw, logging the last start of his 18-year career. The legendary Dodger lefty got through two innings quite easily, striking out two in the second inning with breaking balls that still evaded bats with ease. Luke Raley’s punchout in particular looked like a Kershaw K of old, a left-handed batter hacking haplessly at that classic curveball that swan-dove from the heavens to the underworld.
The third inning was more difficult for the future Hall of Famer. Miles Mastrobuoni, called up earlier that day, kept off a brilliant 1-2 curveball and flicked a painted slider the other way for a base hit down the line. Mastrobuoni thundered around first and got into second for the one-out two-bagger, giving Seattle a chance to get back in the game. Randy Arozarena extended his at-bat to nine pitches but grounded into the inning’s second out, and although Cal Raleigh walked to extend the inning, Eugenio Suárez struck out to strand the runners.
It was another Suárez strikeout that will be remembered, however. Kershaw only grew more unhittable over the fourth and fifth, strolling back out to the mound the final time to face one batter in the sixth. Suárez worked the count full, laying off some breaking balls in the dirt, but a slider a couple inches beneath the plate proved too enticing.
For a split second, it seemed like Dave Roberts might leave Kershaw in for one more batter, but as a figure left the Dodgers dugout, a 45,658-strong sellout crowd rose to their feet and cheered. That figure was none other than Freddie Freeman, who began a cavalcade of heartfelt hugs with an embrace on the mound.
Tears welled in Kershaw’s eyes as he made his way off the mound for the final time, his face red by the time he sat down in the dugout. Mariners and Dodgers fans alike gave their respect to one of the game’s legends as he left the field, a standing ovation befitting Kershaw’s career of 223 wins, 96 losses, 3052 strikeouts, a 2.53 career ERA, one MVP, and three Cy Young Awards.
It was on to the league’s newer stars for the rest of the game. Shohei Ohtani capped off a stellar performance with a seventh inning blast out to dead center field, his 55th of the season, breaking a Dodgers’ single season home run record that he himself set in 2024. Ohtani, who will win the National League MVP, made way for Cal Raleigh, whose odds at the American League award are more split. Raleigh’s last at-bat of 2025 was a single with a man on in the bottom of the eighth, after which Harry Ford trotted to first as a pinch-runner. “MVP” escaped the mouths of Mariner and Dodger fans alike as Raleigh performed one last curtain call.
Suárez knocked Arozarena home with a groundout for Seattle’s only run, but it was all over just a quarter of an hour later. Getting swept going into the playoffs is never what any team wants to happen, but October will present a clean slate as either the Tigers or the Guardians come to Seattle to begin the ALDS on Saturday.
“We got a chance to win everything,” Suárez said after the game. It’s something that’s true of 11 other franchises as the magical month begins, but there will be only one lit up by the shining glory.