After having lost nearly every game in which Dodgers All-Star closer Kenley Jansen was on the 10-day disabled list for an irregular heartbeat (most during the opposing team’s final at-bat), Dodger fans were ecstatic to learn that their beloved California Love right-hander had been medically cleared to come off the DL at the 10-day minimum. As such, when he entered Monday night’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Dodger Stadium with the score tied 3-3, the house was rocking.

…but only briefly.

The extremely popular 30-year-old Willemstad, Curacao native promptly gave up back-to-back solo home runs to Cardinals third baseman Jedd Gyorko and first baseman Matt Carpenter, doing so on his first five pitches, to give the Cardinals a 5-3 lead and the eventual final score.

Not exactly the return that Dodger fans had hoped for or expected.

“The first two hitters, I wasn’t in my comfort zone,” Jansen told reporters after the game. “I think I tried to maybe be amped up to be back and try hard and everything flattened out. I definitely didn’t come back too soon. Stuff happens, but you’ve got to move forward. Tomorrow, if I have a shot, same hitters, I’m looking forward to it.”

Cardinals third baseman Jedd Gyorko did not miss the flat 91-mph cutter that Jansen left up in the zone and right over the middle of the plate. (Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts also took the just-one-of-those nights approach with his star closer. But then, what else is he supposed to do?

“I think it was just lack of execution,” Roberts said. “His arm was in shape, look at the stuff, 93s coming out of his arm and I thought he threw the ball well. But he got it middle-middle to Gyorko and again to another good hitter, Carpenter.

“He’s the best we have, he was chomping at the bit to get out there. He’s the guy we trust and it just didn’t turn out,” Roberts added.

But while Dodger fans will remember the two long balls that Jansen gave up as the reason why the Dodgers lost and dropped an additional half game back of the idle Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies in the NL West standings, the real reason for the Dodgers loss boiled down to the same old story – the 14 runners that the stranded on base and going 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position … including leaving the bases loaded with no outs in the bottom of the first inning, and three consecutive strikeouts with a runner on base and no outs in the bottom of the ninth.

The silver lining to this otherwise dark cloud is that Dodgers right-hander Kenta Maeda was absolutely brilliant in his two innings of work out of the bullpen, during which he struck out four of the six batters he faced in the seventh and eighth innings. Maeda followed oft-troubled right-hander Pedro Baez who, aside from issuing a bases loaded walk in the top of the fifth inning (his fourth of the season), pitched well yet again.

The only other highlight of the night was that Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a first-inning base hit. The popular redhead leads the team with his .308 batting average and .402 on-base percentage, so there’s that.

Turner scores the Dodgers second run of the night on a sacrifice fly by Cody Bellinger. Turner was 2-for-4 on the night with a single and a double, to raise his batting average to a team-leading .308.
(Photo credit – Jill Weisleder)

Game two of the three-game series against the NL East third place Cardinals is on Tuesday night and will feature Dodgers left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu against Cardinals right-hander Daniel Poncedeleon, with a scheduled 7:10 pm (PT) start time. The series finale on Wednesday will see Dodgers right-hander Walker Buehler square off against Cardinals right-hander Jack Flaherty, also at 7:10 pm.

Play Ball!