LOS ANGELES -- It was five years ago Tuesday that Clayton Kershaw's greatness reached its pinnacle. He twirled nine masterful, no-hit innings against the Colorado Rockies that night. Fifteen batters struck out and only one of them reached base, on a Hanley Ramirez error that prevented a perfect game. At season's end, Kershaw captured his third Cy Young Award in four years and became the second pitcher in nearly three decades to win the MVP. He was in the thick of a prime that at times felt like it could last forever.

"It doesn't seem like that long ago, but when you think about all the years in between, it does seem like a long time ago," Kershaw said. "Your career goes fast. It's a blink of an eye. You're an ex-baseball player longer than you're a baseball player."

Kershaw isn't yet nearing the end, but it's no longer far enough to ignore. His most recent start resembled the vast majority of his outings this season -- he fought through shoddy command, pitched out of trouble, and in the end, led his Los Angeles Dodgers to victory.

This one consisted of seven scoreless innings, on two walks and three hits, in a 9-0 win over the San Francisco Giants, a floundering team that entered with the second-lowest batting average in the sport. Kershaw improved his record to 7-1, lowered his ERA to 2.85 and notched his 11th quality start in 12 outings this season. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts credited Kershaw's ability to minimize damage and his "relentless preparation" for his sustained success through diminished stuff.

Another potential reason: extra rest.

The Dodgers have been more proactive in recent years about giving Kershaw an extra day or two off in between starts. Tuesday marked only the third time he took the mound on regular rest, which consists of four days in between. Since the start of 2018, Kershaw has made 14 more regular-season starts on extra rest than he has on regular rest, the Dodgers' answer to the growing NBA trend of "load management."

"Just the mental thing of having an extra day every once in a while is helpful," said Kershaw, who racked up more than 2,000 innings before his age-31 season in 2019. "I don't think anybody can argue with that. Whether it really helps your performance, who really knows."

It isn't just Kershaw. The Dodgers, who will soon deploy a sixth starter to combat a stretch of 18 games in 18 days, have had 42 of their starts come with an extra day of rest, fifth-most in the majors. The four teams ahead of them -- the San Diego Padres, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers and Giants -- have rotations that are either a lot younger or not nearly as effective or both.

Roberts called the extra rest "a benefit," to Kershaw and to the entire staff. Kershaw, as routine-oriented as anyone, downplayed it.

"I love pitching on regular rest; I love being in that routine, and extra days are great every once in a while to give you a blow," he said. "I don't like doing it over and over again. It just becomes the new norm, and so regular rest sometimes feels shorter. So I don't really like that. But it shouldn't matter too much. My routine doesn't change too much, just with that extra day."

Kershaw's fastball velocity (90.5 mph coming in) is down for the fourth straight year, and his reliance on breaking balls (58.1 percent) is up for the fourth straight year. He's nearing a career high in home run rate, but he isn't shying away from contact -- as evidenced by a walk rate of 1.6 -- and he's still recording outs efficiently.

Kershaw had two on with one out in the second inning, then fooled Brandon Crawford with a slider and got Steven Duggar to pop out. With a man on second and two out in the third, he got Tyler Austin to ground out. With a man on first and one out in the sixth, he watched Cody Bellinger make a catch up against the fence, then picked off Donovan Solano -- his 63rd career pickoff, 26 more than any active player.

The Dodgers had two on and one out in the bottom half of that inning, their lead at only three, but Roberts let Kershaw hit, even though he had already thrown 83 pitches. He went on to retire the first two batters in the seventh. And after Kevin Pillar reached second base on a line drive that sailed over Alex Verdugo's head, Kershaw came back to strike out Crawford on another slider, his 100th and final pitch.

"He just kind of outwills the other team, kind of grinds it out," Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes said. "He had seven shutout innings, and I don't really think he ever felt that great today."

To mark the anniversary of Kershaw's no-hitter, the Dodgers distributed a commemorative bobblehead and invited his two young children to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. Kershaw's only son, Charley, hadn't yet been born when his father completed the most impressive start of his illustrious career. At one point, with the bobblehead in one hand and his miniature glove in the other, Charley lifted both arms, mimicking Kershaw's signature celebration.

In recent years, Kershaw has talked about how fatherhood has softened him off the field, filled his life with some much-needed perspective. The continual threat of injury, and the limitations it has created, has also made him more open-minded about deviating from his stringent routine.

Agreeing to a little extra rest every now and then is only one example.

"He's all-in," Roberts said. "This is something we've done over the course of three years, too. I think if you look back at his career, he's gone on regular more times, but the last few years, we've built in some extra days of rest. And the numbers speak to he still hasn't lost any production."

LOS ANGELES -- The BreakingT Slack channel is usually quiet on Sundays, even during baseball season. But that changed on June 9. Its director of marketing, Dominic Bonvissuto, an avid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers, watched Max Muncy homer off Madison Bumgarner and get into a heated back-and-forth with the San Francisco Giants' longtime ace as he circled the bases. Bonvissuto posted a link of the exchange to the Slack channel and added a request.

"Let's monitor this."

The owner of RotoWear, Kenneth Cashman, has Muncy on his fantasy team and found out about the home run instantly, expressing a similar impulse.

RotoWear, like BreakingT, is a small company with only a handful of full-time employees. They both specialize in quickly producing T-shirts that convey memorable events and themes around sports, largely related to Major League Baseball. Bonvissuto and Cashman know T-shirt fodder when they see it. The Muncy-Bumgarner tiff certainly qualified, but it needed a hook.

And then, more than two hours after his prodigious home run at AT&T Park, Muncy elaborated on the discussion during an on-field interview with SportsNet LA.

"I hit the ball and then he yelled at me," Muncy told Alanna Rizzo. "He said, 'Don't watch the ball. You run.' And I just responded back, 'If you don't want me to watch the ball, you can go get it out of the ocean.'"

There it was: "Go get it out of the ocean."

"That's when we knew it was going to be a shirt," Bonvissuto said. "As soon as we saw the quote, we had the tag."

"It was probably one of the greatest quotes I've ever heard," Cashman said. "As soon as I heard it, I had the idea."

And because of that, Muncy now has his two favorite T-shirts. One, from RotoWear, has a squiggly line below the phrase to depict a body of water and shows a baseball sailing through it. The other, from BreakingT, placed the comment next to a likeness of Muncy's backswing. Throughout this homestand, Muncy has basically alternated between the two of them each day, putting one on as soon as he reaches his locker.

"I didn't want it to become a huge thing because it's not my personality, but at the same time, it was kind of a cool thing," he said, looking down and tugging at one of the shirts on Wednesday afternoon. "On top of that, it's a comfy T-shirt. Seriously. It's more comfortable than a lot of the shirts we get to wear in there."

Muncy retreated to the clubhouse after his comments and found an avalanche of messages from family and friends. He checked social media and realized that he had become a viral sensation. Later that Sunday night, his wife saw the RotoWear shirt on Instagram and, at Muncy's request, asked if it could ship some to L.A. BreakingT -- which, unlike RotoWear, has a license from the MLB Players Association -- had its shirt up for sale by noon on Monday. The next morning, the company folded a dozen shirts into a cardboard box and sent them to the Dodgers' clubhouse unannounced.

At 1:15 p.m. on Friday, Muncy sent BreakingT a direct message to thank the company.

Three hours later, at the behest of teammates, he and second baseman Enrique Hernandez took the field for batting practice wearing the shirts, igniting surges in sales and persistent chatter on social media. The shirts might make another on-field appearance on Thursday, 11 days after the confrontation, before the presumed rematch between Muncy and Bumgarner.

"I might break it out again," Muncy said behind a wry smile. "It's more my personality to not do that, but we'll see what happens."

Bumgarner has a history of taking exception to on-field celebration, most of his anger directed at former Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig. But he appeared self-deprecating in the aftermath of his exchange with Muncy, saying, "The more I think about it, just let the kids play. That's what everybody is saying. But -- I can't."

Muncy is as mild-mannered and reserved as they come, but he is clearly having fun with this.

"You have to," he said. "Everyone keeps wanting to bring up the situation. I don't know if he's said anything about it, but I believe we're both on the same page that it was just one of those things that it's the heat of the moment, two guys competing, and that's all there was to it.

"From what I understood, he kind of laughed at the comment. It was nothing personal; it was nothing against him. He's one of the toughest pitchers out there. It's one of those things that happened and it's over with, and you kind of have fun with the moment. If you can't do that, then you're going to drive yourself into a hole."

Muncy didn't establish himself in the major leagues until he was 27 years old. He was jobless in the spring of 2017, then suddenly became one of the game's fiercest hitters through the summer of 2018. He'll enter his rematch against Bumgarner with a .307/.407/.600 slash line since the start of May, further validating himself as a legitimate slugger. His words suddenly carry weight, enough to be emblazoned on T-shirts.

RotoWear and BreakingT both say their "Go get it out of the ocean" shirts rank within their top five direct-to-consumer sellers this year and No. 1 among any Dodgers-related apparel the companies have ever produced. They were sprinkled throughout Dodger Stadium all week and will be out in full force for Thursday's series finale, which, given the approaching trade deadline, could mark Bumgarner's last L.A. start in a Giants uniform.

As soon as he made the comment on camera, Muncy figured it would blow up.

"It was one of those things where in the back of my head I thought this might be a problem, it might get big," he said. "But you gotta have fun with it."

Britain's Andy Murray will return to Wimbledon in the doubles with France's Pierre-Hugues Herbert six months after a career-saving hip operation.

Two-time Wimbledon champion Murray, 32, had hip surgery in January, but made a winning return alongside Feliciano Lopez at Queen's.

Murray also wants to play mixed doubles at Wimbledon but has yet to finalise who his partner will be.

"[Herbert] is a brilliant doubles player," Murray told BBC Sport.

"He hadn't planned on playing doubles at Wimbledon this year. In the last couple of weeks he chatted with his coach and thought it would be a nice opportunity.

"I told him my expectations are pretty low and it worked itself out."

Murray has found a good men's doubles partner in Herbert, who has won all four Grand Slam doubles titles.

The Brit clearly relished playing with Lopez at Queen's as the pair clinched a straight-set victory against Colombian top seeds Robert Farah and Juan Sebastian Cabal.

And Murray says he wants to "enjoy playing now" after learning to walk again after his injury.

"Physically I couldn't extend my leg for the last 18 months, two years," he explained. "My walking gait was terrible - I wasn't limping because I wanted to.

"Now I have zero discomfort and no pain after the match."

More Murray on Friday

Murray and Lopez will face either British duo Dan Evans and Ken Skupski or the Canadian-Australian pairing of Felix Auger-Aliassime and Alex de Minaur in Friday's quarter-finals at Queen's.

The match will be fifth on a packed centre court schedule and you can watch it live on BBC TV and the BBC Sport website.

Andy could face older brother Jamie in the last four if they both come through their last-eight matches.

Jamie and Neal Skupski face Henri Kontinen and John Peers in the match before Andy's.

MONTEREY, Calif.  — Twenty years after earning his second consecutive Formula One drivers’ championship, Mika Häkkinen will demonstrate his considerable driving talents behind the wheel of the 1970 McLaren M8D/3 “Batmobile” at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion on Aug. 15-18 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

American racing legend Dan Gurney and British Formula One driver Peter Gethin each raced the “Batmobile” during the 1970 Can-Am season as teammates to Denny Hulme following the tragic loss of Bruce McLaren.

Gurney drove it during the first three races of the season, winning twice from the pole position at Mosport and Mont-Tremblant. Gethin raced the car seven times, scoring a victory at Road America along with two other podiums. The car was used as a spare for Bruce McLaren Motor Racing drivers Peter Revson and Denny Hulme in 1971 and was in privateer hands from 1972 to 1974.

The vivid papaya-colored race car is powered by a roaring 7.6-liter Chevrolet engine. The high strut-mounted rear wing of its predecessor – the M8B – had been banned by Can-Am, so the M8D’s rear wing was mounted low on fins, earning the car’s “Batmobile” nickname.

The McLaren team dominated the 1970 season with nine wins in the 10-round championship. McLaren drivers Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme and Peter Revson had won five straight Can-Am championships from 1967 to 1971.

This will mark the third consecutive year that Häkkinen, who had not previously driven at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, will make demonstration laps at Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. He drove the 1974 McLaren M23 in 2017 and the 1995 McLaren F1 GTR in 2018.

“This track is fun, really enjoyable,” said Häkkinen. “The track goes up and down, and some of the corners have great camber. It looks tighter than it is from a distance, so you need a lot of guts to brake later and take the right line.”

Häkkinen will make spirited exhibition laps in the M8D/3 in the noon hour during the first three days of the four-day event. The Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion takes place Aug. 15-18 and will honor the 50th anniversary of the International Motor Sports Ass’n. Tickets and information are available by visiting www.WeatherTechRaceway.com or calling 831-242-8200.

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio – Persistent storms have forced Limaland Motorsports Park and All Star Circuit of Champions officials to cancel the Cometic Gasket Ohio Sprint Speedweek presented by Indy Metal Finishing event scheduled for Friday.

The Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1 will now switch directions and head south on Friday, setting aim for the highbanks of Atomic Speedway in Chillicothe, Ohio.

Pit gates are scheduled to open at 2 p.m. with main gates to follow at 3 p.m. Hot laps will hit the speedway at 6:30 p.m.

ANDERSON, Ind. – Veteran Aaron Pierce made a picture perfect crossover pass on lap 71 to take the lead from Justin Grant and win Thursday’s non-winged 410 sprint car feature at Anderson Speedway.

With a tightly bunched field track position was crucial on Sugar Fork Crossing night at Anderson Speedway.

Grant took the lead on lap 47 after an incident with Travis Welpott. The front seven cars ran nose to tail until Pierce took the point.

Bobby Santos got around Grant on lap 80 with Kody Swanson climbing from the fifth spot to third by lap 84. Santos closed on Pierce but when the leaders encountered lap traffic in the last five circuits, he went high in the first turn.

Pierce won by 1.8 seconds over Santos and Swanson.

“The car was really good tonight,” Pierce said in the Star Financial Winner’s Circle. “The field was so tight that you had to take advantage of the opportunity when it came.

“I didn’t know how close Bobby (Santos) was at the end, but I know he nudged me a couple of times.”

Santos, who is still seeking his first Anderson Speedway win, said the team learned more about racing the track.

“We keep getting close,” he said of a win. “At the end I was lucky to save it and not make contact with the outside wall.”

Swanson said he made a mistake on the only restart when he tried the outside line and was then forced to fall back into line.

“When the field sorted out some, we were able to gain some spots to finish third,” he said.

Welpott took advantage of the inversion following qualifying and led the first 46 laps before his night ended.

From the start Welpott was chased by Justin Grant, Aaron Pierce, Jacob Wilson and Bobby Santos.

He was able to hold off Grant by running the middle groove through the corners. But for several laps Welpott’s car was pushing in the corners.

On lap 47 Grant got inside of Welpott in turn one and the two made contact with Welpott flipping and coming to a rest against the retaining wall in turn two.

Swanson set fast time during qualifying just one-one thousandth of a second quicker than the lap turned by Santos with Pierce third quick.

The finish:

Aaron Pierce, Bobby Santos, Kody Swanson, Nick Hamilton, Kyle O’Gara, Jimmy McCune, Jacob Wilson, C.J. Leary, Joe Liguori, Brian Vaughn, Justin Grant, Chris Jagger, Travis Welpott, Jim Payne.

Tampa Bay Lightning forward Ryan Callahan is being placed on long-term injured reserve after he was diagnosed with a serious back issue, the team announced.

General manager Julien BriseBois said that doctors recommended that he no longer play hockey because of degenerative disc disease of his lumbar spine.

"He's such a proud competitor, such a fierce competitor. I know he was planning to not only play out this contract, but sign another contract after that," BriseBois said, according to NHL.com

The 34-year-old Callahan had seven goals and 10 assists in 52 games last season. He was a candidate to be traded this offseason as the Bolts try to create cap room to pay restricted free agent Brayden Point. Callahan has one year left on his contract with a $5.8 million cap hit. The Lightning will now be able to exceed the cap to fill out their roster using an LTIR exemption.

Callahan was acquired by the Lightning from the Rangers in 2014 in the deal that sent Martin St. Louis to New York. Callahan responded with 24 goals and 30 assists to match his career high in points in his first full season in Tampa. But his numbers have declined precipitously since then as he battled injuries.

Callahan, who is a New York native, eclipsed the 20-goal mark four times in his career.