When Clayton Kershaw appeared on the FOX pregame show before Game 2 in Los Angeles and was asked if he would be returning to pitch in 2025, he didn’t think he was breaking any news when he said he did.

“I just thought everyone kind of assumed and knew I was coming back. I didn’t really think about it,” he said Tuesday at the Dodgers’ off-day workout at Citi Field.

Kershaw did make it clear he doesn’t plan to pitch for any other team.

“I’m going to be a Dodger,” he said.

How that plays out could take multiple routes. Kershaw’s contract includes a player option for 2025 that he could exercise, or the three-time Cy Young Award winner could decline it, become a free agent and re-sign with the Dodgers under different terms.

“I think I’ll just kind of talk to Andrew, try to figure all that stuff out,” Kershaw said of Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman. “Not exactly sure.”

Kershaw had shoulder surgery last November and did not return to pitch for the Dodgers until July. He made just seven starts before a toe injury ended his season.

“I think probably more than anything just having surgery last year, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to get the surgery and then only have seven starts,” Kershaw said Tuesday. “It just kind of feels like a waste. Might as well make use of the new shoulder and see how it goes. I just want to keep playing.”

The 36-year-old Kershaw said he and the team’s medical staff are “still deciding what to do” about his chronic toe issue, which involves bone spurs. Surgery — which could potentially delay the start of his 2025 season — is a possibility.

“It’s not, like, super clear-cut,” he said. “But I think we’re getting a pretty decent plan together in place. Whatever happens, it can wait until after this run here.”

— Bill Plunkett

Yankees win to take 2-0 lead in ALCS

Aaron Judge hit a two-run drive into Monument Park for his first home run of this postseason, and the New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Guardians 6-3 on Tuesday night to take a 2-0 AL Championship Series lead.

Judge, who entered with just one RBI in the playoffs, hit a sacrifice fly in a two-run second that put the Yankees ahead 3-0. With New York leading 4-2 lead in the seventh, the likely AL MVP drove a fastball at the letters from Hunter Gaddis 414 feet to center for his 14th career postseason home run.

In a matchup of aces who had off nights, Cleveland’s Tanner Bibee got just just four outs in the shortest start of his professional career and an erratic Gerrit Cole was chased after four walks in 4 1/3 innings.

Winner Clay Holmes, Tim Hill and Tommy Kahnle combined for 3 2/3 scoreless innings. José Ramírez hit a ninth-inning home run off Luke Weaver, just the second earned run New York’s bullpen has allowed over 23 1/3 innings in six postseason games.

After a day off, Game 3 is today in Cleveland. The Yankees lead the ALCS 2-0 for the first time since 2009 against the Angels.

New York’s Gleyber Torres reached base leading off for the fifth time in the playoffs and had three hits. Anthony Rizzo had two hits and is 3 for 7 in two games since returning from a pair of fractured fingers that caused him to miss the Division Series.

Rookie shortstop Brayan Rocchio and right fielder Will Brennan committed run-scoring errors for the Guardians.

Rocchio dropped Judge’s first-inning popup, allowing Torres to score. After Cleveland closed to 3-2, Brennan bobbled the ball when he tried for a barehand pickup of Rizzo’s sixth-inning double that caromed off the low wall down the right-field line. Anthony Volpe, who had been on first, sprinted home.

Steven Kwan extended his Cleveland-record postseason hitting streak to 12 games.

Alex Verdugo had a opposite-field RBI double in the two-run second that glanced off a shoulder of left field umpire Vic Carapazza and went down the line.

Cleveland closed to 3-2 in the fifth when Josh Naylor hit a sacrifice fly and, after Holmes relieved with the bases loaded, Will Brennan grounded into a run-scoring forceout.

Cleveland went 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 runners.