KCAL issued a press release saying the Dodgers 3-2 victory over the New York Yankees attracted the high rating since 1998.

From the release:

KCAL 9 attracted an average of 603,000 viewers with its 7:00-10:00 p.m. broadcast, based on live plus same-day data provided by Nielsen Media Research. Viewership peaked with 814,000 viewers during the final quarter-hour of the broadcast (9:45-10:00 p.m.), when Mark Ellis knocked in the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. In households, Tuesday’s game delivered a 7.0 rating and 12 share - the highest local rating for regular season Dodger game on any broadcast or cable outlet since June 25, 1998 (when a Dodgers-Angels game attracted a 7.4 rating). In the key adults 25-54 demographic, last night’s contest attracted a 4.0 rating and 13 share - the highest rating for a Dodger game since KCAL became the team’s broadcast partner at the start of the 2006 season.

Most of us will recall this almost didn't happen. Time Warner Cable and CBS has been battling for money after their retransmission contract expired at the end of June: CBS wants to charge more per subscriber; Time Warner doesn't want to pay it.

The two parties negotiated through Monday until finally at around 9:00 p.m. PT Time Warner pulled the plug on CBS, KCAL 9, Showtime and CBS Sports Network among other CBS channels. Viewers got this lovely graphic:

Minutes later, Time Warner restored the broadcasts at CBS' request and both have set a deadline if Friday at 2 p.m. PT to get a deal done.

Imagine if that didn't get done.

Viewers won't have to worry about that tonight. The duel between Hiroki Kuroda and Clayton Kershaw will be broadcast on Prime Ticket at 7 p.m.