BAY AREA FOOTBALL Raiders place Lynch on injured reserve, can’t return until Christmas Eve

ALAMEDA – Unless Marshawn Lynch has a Christmas gift in mind for his hometown fans, he’s likely played his last game in Oakland as a Raider.

Lynch was placed on injured reserve with a groin injury Monday, just a few hours after the Raiders traded wide receiver Amari Cooper to the Dallas Cowboys for a first-round draft pick.

Players on injured reserves are out a minimum of six weeks, then have two weeks of practice time before being eligible to play in a game. That means the earliest the Lynch could see the field this season for the Raiders is on Christmas Eve in the Raiders’ regular-season home finale against the Denver Broncos.

The Raiders finish the season on Dec. 30 at Kansas City.

Lynch, 32, leads the Raiders with 331 yards on 77 carries. He is under contract with the Raiders through this season with a salary cap number of $4,453,153.

Teams are allowed to designate two players to return off injured reserve in a season, with defensive tackle Justin Ellis and tackle Donald Penn possibilities to play again in 2018.

Since coming out of retirement last season and being traded to the Raiders from the Seattle Seahawks, Lynch gained 1,267 yards and 10 touchdowns in 21 games.

Without Lynch, the duties as the lead runner will fall to Doug Martin, signed as a free agent in the offseason. Martin (5-foot-9, 223 pounds), who played for Tampa Bay for six seasons, has 99 yards on 27 carries as Lynch got most of the work.

The Raiders can also give more carries to running back Jalen Richard, who has been primarily a third-down back for the passing game, and Deandre Washington, another third-year runner who had arthroscopic knee surgery late in training camp and has yet to carry the ball this season.

“I’ll probably see a little bit more carries, so we don’t overload Doug and everything,” Richard said. The Los Angeles Dodgers celebrate after a 5-1 win against the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series at Miller Park in Milwaukee on Saturday.

BOSTON – Soon after the Los Angeles Dodgers landed here on Sunday, Clayton Kershaw caught a ride to Fenway Park. He has never pitched here in his 10-year career, and he was operating under a schedule misaligned by his appearance as a reliever in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series. In order to be ready to start Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday, Kershaw needed to get in a workout.

So he climbed atop the bullpen mound, clad in a long-sleeve Tshirt and shorts, to reorient his delivery. He practiced his motion without throwing a baseball, ensuring he would be ready to face Boston Red Sox ace Chris Sale in the Series opener.

Kershaw threw 15 pitches in the ninth inning on Saturday. He treated it like a highly adrenalized bullpen session.

“Obviously the intensity is different, and things like that,” Kershaw said. “But that’s why I came here yesterday to make sure everything Should be good.”

The Dodgers will line up Hyun-jin Ryu for Game 2 and Walker Buehler for Game 3, manager Dave Roberts said. The team has not announced Rich Hill as the Game 4 starter, but he is the most likely option.

Ryu will duel David Price in Game 2. Boston will use Rick Porcello and Nathan Eovaldi in Games 3 and 4, but both will be was good. available in relief for the first two nights.

Kershaw remains in search of a championship. He came close in 2017. He dominated Houston in Game 1, wilted in Game 5 and contributed four scoreless innings in the Game 7 defeat. Asked how important a title was to him, he did not mince words.

“It’s pretty critical,” Kershaw said. “I really want to win the