From Jack Harris: Clayton Kershaw took a deep breath, grasped the microphone with his left hand, then chuckled as he scanned the room around him.
“This,” he said, “is weird.”
Over his 18 seasons with the Dodgers, Kershaw was always wary of putting the spotlight on himself. Now, dozens of teammates, coaches, executives, staffers and media members, as well as his wife, Ellen, and their four kids, all sat before him — witness to his official announcement that he was ending his illustrious playing career.
“I’m going to call it,” Kershaw said. “I’m going to retire.”
After years of grappling with the decision, and ultimately returning to play for the Dodgers into his age-37 season, the future Hall of Fame left-hander made his decision to finally walk away sound simple.
“Going into the season, we kind of knew that this was going to be it, so didn’t want to say anything in case I changed my mind,” he said. “But over the course of the season, just how grateful I am to have been healthy and be out on the mound and be able to pitch, I think it just made it obvious that this was a good sending-off point. And it is. I’ve had the best time this year. It’s been a blast.”
Clayton Kershaw announces retirement after 18 seasons with Dodgers
Plaschke: Clayton Kershaw retiring with legacy as the greatest Dodger ever
Dodgers to reach 4-million fan milestone for the first time in team history
Shaikin: How the Dodgers’ new minor league team in Ontario came up with its name
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From Jack Harris: Yoshinobu Yamamoto was not at his most efficient Thursday night.
Which meant, even though he pitched 5⅓ scoreless innings against the San Francisco Giants, he left the fate of the game to the Dodgers’ shaky bullpen.
So often on nights like these recently, such a scenario would be a recipe for disaster. Given the way things have been going for the Dodgers’ unreliable relief corps — which entered the night with a 5.65 ERA in September — anything more than a few innings has felt like a big ask.
This time, however, the Dodgers’ relievers found a way to grind things out.
No, Michael Kopech still didn’t have his command. And no, Blake Treinen still didn’t look like himself.
But when they needed to most, the Dodgers’ relievers executed pitches. In a 2-1 win at Dodger Stadium, they did enough to stretch the team’s National League West division lead to three games.
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ANGELS
Christian Yelich went two for four and reached 100 RBIs for the season as the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Angels 5-2 on Thursday night.
Yelich doubled home Brice Turang as part of the Brewers’ three-run outburst in the seventh inning that broke a 2-2 tie. This marks Yelich’s first 100-RBI season since 2018, when he had 110 and was named the NL MVP.
The Brewers completed a three-game sweep and reduced their magic number for clinching the NL Central to four. The Angels have lost seven straight.
ANZE KOPITAR TO RETIRE
From Austin Knoblauch: Anze Kopitar, widely considered the greatest player in Kings franchise history and poised to become the team’s all-time leading scorer, announced Thursday he will retire at the end of the 2025-26 season.
“I just felt this is the time, but saying that, I’m looking extremely forward to this next season,” said Kopitar, who added the decision was rooted in spending more time with his family. “I still have a lot of motivation. I’ve got a lot of energy, a lot of desire to compete at the highest level.”
Kopitar said he was confident his decision would hold — even if the Kings made it all the way to Game 7 of a Stanley Cup Final.
“My mind is made up. It was a hard decision,” Kopitar said. “I want to get this out of the way now, to where I’m not a distraction for the team. … I just felt that this is the best time.”
ANGEL CITY
Croix Bethune scored on a header in the 71st minute to pull the Washington Spirit into a 2-2 draw with Angel City on Thursday night in the National Women’s Soccer League.
The Spirit (10-4-7) remained in second place in the league standings behind the Kansas City Current with a nine-game unbeaten run.
The draw stopped a two-game losing streak for Angel City (6-9-6), which was below the playoff line but still within reach of a berth.
THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
1925 — Bill Tilden wins his sixth straight U.S. Open tennis championship with a five-set victory over Bill Johnston. Tilden wins 4-6, 11-9, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. It’s the fourth consecutive year that Tilden beats Johnston in the final.
1942 — Alsab, runner-up in the 1942 Kentucky Derby, beats 3-10 favorite Whirlaway, the 1941 Triple Crown champion, by a nose in a $25,000 match race at Narragansett Park. Alsab and Whirlaway meet twice more in 1942, with Whirlaway winning the Jockey Club Gold Cup on Oct.3, and Alsab taking the New York Handicap on Oct. 10.
1948 — Pancho Gonzales, 20, wins the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association title with a 6-2, 6-3, 14-12 victory over Eric Sturgess.
1985 — Minnesota’s Tommy Kramer passes for 436 yards and three touchdowns in the Vikings’ 33-24 loss to the Chicago Bears.
1988 — U.S. Olympic diver Greg Louganis hits his head on diving board at the Seoul Olympics. Louganis hits the board on his ninth dive. He has four temporary stitches put in the top of his head so that he could come back and perform his last two dives. Less than 30 minutes later, he completes a reverse 1 1/2 somersault with 3 1/2 twists and, in the final round, a reverse 3 1/2 somersault in tuck position to secure his place in the medal round.
1992 — Sergei Bubka raises the world record in the pole vault, his 32nd world record, clearing 20 feet, 1½ inches in the Toto International at Tokyo.
1993 — Nigel Mansell overpowers the field in the Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix to become the first rookie to win the Indy car PPG Cup championship.
2000 — In the Sydney Olympics, the U.S. softball team strands a staggering 20 baserunners in an 11-inning, 2-1 loss to Japan, which ends a 112-game winning streak. It’s the first loss for the Americans since the 1998 world championships.
2004 — Jerry Rice’s run of 274 straight games with a catch is ended in the Oakland Raiders’ 13-10 victory over the Buffalo Bills. The last time Rice didn’t catch a pass was Dec. 1, 1985, at Washington.
2009 — Texas College of the NAIA is trounced 75-6 by Texas Southern, a week after losing 92-0 to Stephen F. Austin. The Steers fall to 0-4 and have been outscored 300-12.
2010 — Matt Schaub is 38 of 52 for a franchise-record 497 yards with three touchdowns in Houston’s 30-27 overtime win over Washington. Donovan McNabb of the Redskins is 28 of 38 for 426 yards. It’s the first time two quarterbacks throw for 400 yards in an NFL game since 1994.
2015 — Greyson Lambert of Georgia throws for 330 yards, three touchdowns and sets an NCAA record by completing all but one of his 25 passes to lead the to a 52-20 victory over South Carolina. Lambert posts the highest percentage (96.0) in FBS history for a minimum of 20 completions, breaking the mark of 95.8 (23 of 24) shared by Tennessee’s Tee Martin and West Virginia’s Geno Smith.
2015 — Baker Mayfield of Oklahoma, sets a school record with 572 total yards, throws four TD passes and runs for two more scores in the Sooners’ 52-38 victory over Tulsa.
THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY
1925 — Ted Lyons lost his bid for a no-hitter when Bobby Veach singled with two outs in the ninth inning. The Chicago White Sox routed the Washington Senators 17-0.
1926 — The St. Louis Cardinals pounded the Philadelphia Phillies 23-3 in the first game of a doubleheader and beat them again in the nightcap, 10-2.
1949 — Ralph Kiner of the Pittsburgh Pirates became the first NL player to hit 50 home runs in two different seasons.
1955 — Ernie Banks of the Chicago Cubs set a major league record with his fifth grand slam of the season in a 12-inning, 6-5 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.
1968 — Denny McLain won his 31st game, the most in the AL since Lefty Grove’s 31 in 1931. The Detroit Tigers beat the New York Yankees 6-2 while Mickey Mantle hit his 535th and next-to-last career homer.
1972 — Minnesota’s Cesar Tovar completed the cycle with a game-winning two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Twins a 5-3 victory over the Texas Rangers.
1973 — Frank Robinson hits his first home run in Arlington Stadium. It was the 32nd major league ballpark in which he had homered.
1984 — Pete Rose reached the 100-hit plateau for the 22nd consecutive year, an all-time record. He also tied the NL record for doubles with 725 as the Cincinnati Reds beat the Atlanta Braves 4-2.
1986 — Chicago’s Joe Crowley pitch a no-hitter to lead the White Sox to a 7-1 win over the Angels.
1995 — San Diego’s Ken Caminiti became the first player in major league history to homer from both sides of the plate three times in a season as he went 4-for-4 with a career-high eight RBIs in a 15-4 win over Colorado.
1998 — Seattle’s Alex Rodriguez hit his 40th homer to become the third player in baseball history to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in the same season.
2001 — Roger Clemens became the first pitcher in major league history to go 20-1, pitching the New York Yankees to a 6-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox.
2001 — Albert Pujols set a National League rookie RBI record as St. Louis beat Milwaukee 8-2. Pujols drove in three runs to give him 120 RBIs, breaking the mark of 119 set by Wally Berger in 1930 for the Boston Braves.
2008 — Baseball’s instant replay system produced its first reversal when Tampa Bay’s Carlos Pena had a two-run double changed to a three-run homer during the fourth inning against Minnesota.
2008 — Greg Maddux pitches his 5,000th inning against the San Francisco Giants.
2011 — Mariano Rivera set the major league record with his 602nd save, closing out the New York Yankees’ 6-4 win over the Minnesota Twins.
2017 — A new MLB record for the most home runs in a season, 5,694, is set when Alex Gordon of the Kansas City Royals homers.
2024 — Shohei Ohtani kicks down the door of a brand new club of which he is the only member: the 50-50 club. Today, he gets his first six-hit game, and three of his hits are homers, giving him 51 on the season. He also steals two bases, also reaching (and going past) the 50 mark, all the while driving in ten runs in a 20-4 demolition of the Marlins by the Dodgers. Less than a month ago he became only the sixth member of the 40-40 club, but he now stands all alone in this new level of otherworldly excellence, and incidentally has set a new Dodgers single-season record for home runs (breaking Shawn Green’s mark).
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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