September 1st, 2019 at 8:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka Remember a little over a week ago when, after blowing his sixth save of the season (which is now seven) against the Toronto Blue Jays at Dodger Stadium, Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen snubbed reporters (including SportsNet LA’s Alanna Rizzo) waiting to speak with him in the Dodgers clubhouse until they were finally told to leave?
Perhaps the 31-year-old Willemstad, Curacao native should have employed this same less-than-professional tactic on Saturday night in the visitor’s clubhouse at Chase Field when, after giving up what would prove to be the game-winning home run to Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Eduardo Escobar in the bottom of the eighth inning in the eventual 6-5 Dodgers loss – their third straight to the Snakes – he said (and I quote) you “just gotta laugh about it.”
No really, he actually said this. The guy with seven blown saves in 34 save opportunities this season (including his last three) told reporters that you just gotta laugh about it.
Just so there’s no confusion, here is Jansen’s entire quote:
“(Bad) pitch. I just hung it. Just gotta get better. I know it looks awful to people but I know it’s going to get better. My fastball was good today. My two-seamer was good today. I just hung a slider and … just gotta laugh about it, I guess.
“Just dealing with so much crap, just can’t get a break. Maybe this will just make me a stronger man and a stronger pitcher. And once I get through it, I’ll be fine.”
Sorry, Kenley. Maybe you can laugh about it, but the (very) large contingent of Dodger fans among the new all-time record crowd of 50,180 at Chase Field on Saturday night – including more than 1,000 fans from the popular Pantone 294 Dodgers fan group (not to mention the countless millions watching on television or listening on radio) – don’t see anything funny about it, especially when your team has been sitting on a Magic Number of nine for four days now..
(Image courtesy on MLB.com)
Even though Jansen was not technically charged with a blown save nor the loss on Saturday, he flat out blew the game, which turned what should have been a no-decision for Dodgers ace and future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw into the left-hander’s fourth loss of the season opposite his team-leading 13 wins. But as he always does and unlike Jansen, Kershaw owned up to his worst start of the season and fell on his own sword.
“Tough game,” Kershaw told reporters after the game. “I felt pretty good today actually. Just left a few pitches up again and gave up some homers.
“They hit mistakes and they did a good job of it,” Kershaw added. “So just don’t make mistakes.”
The 31-year-old Dallas, TX native and Dodgers first-round draft pick in 2006 out of Highland Park High School in University Park, TX then used the age-old (and time-proven) baseball proverb.
“Momentum is a weird thing in baseball. You’re only as good as your next day’s starting pitcher,” Kershaw said.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who is undoubtedly getting tired of making excuses for his struggling team, had high praise for his star left-hander.
“I thought the first three innings were really good,” Roberts said of Kershaw. “He commanded the ball. I just think that fourth inning things kind of went sideways. They took some good swings, there were some misses over the big part of the plate and unfortunately, we couldn’t limit damage tonight.”
…or the night before. Or the night before that, etc., etc.
“I think there’s just mistakes and it’s just unfortunate that when he does, it happens to go out of the ballpark right now,” Roberts added.
One thing is for certain. You can bet your very last nickel that Clayton Kershaw and Dave Roberts don’t see anything worth laughing about here.
Play Ball!
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Time for a change. I’m so over him!
Jansen’s comments are about as effective as his pitches! He’s turning out to be the biggest joke of all!
Just look at last night’s game,what role can you trust Jansen in right now? I wouldn’t trust him as a set up guy or a closer. Roberts has to stop kissing Jansen’s ass and flaming his arrogant ego,if we’re going anywhere in the playoffs.We overpaid Jansen and Kershaw based on their past performances unfortunately we’re stuck with both of them for two more years.
The Dodgers are being beat up on right now. Every thing seems to be going against them. The Dbacks are hot right now and no matter what happens it goes in their favor. We all hope this ends today but it’s hard to predict the future.
This has absolutely nothing to do with predicting the future, Joe. This is about a guy who is so hung up on himself that he won’t even acknowledge that he has a problem. Until he does, nothing will change.
I can’t.
I see it a little differently than those of you above.
I’m sure Jansen is very aware of his decline. It has to be eating at him accompanied by self doubt. I don’t see an ego problem here, no more than any other player who has dominated the opposition for a long period of time and now finds that the dominance is gone.
Not sure what you guys are looking for from Jansen. An admission that he now sucks and should just quit? I’ve never had to do it, but, I gotta believe addressing the press (in front of millions of people) after suddenly becoming very mortal after years of dominance would be difficult. These young men are paid to pitch and hit, not be verbally artful wordsmiths.
I can’t believe ANYONE here really believes Jansen is laughing about his recent performances. All I expect from him is that he is totally dedicated and working hard to fix the problem.
Let’s hope Jansen finds his confidence and quickly puts it back together like Joe Kelly did earlier this year or Baez did last year. He’s going to be big part of this team for the rest of this year and the next two years (No he isn’t opting out).
I am worried about the upcoming post-season. We all know the competition is going to be extremely tough. No guarantees in the post-season. The Dodger organization has a month to figure alot of things out, including Jansen, Ryu, Kershaw, Bellinger and the roster.
What we do know is the playoff roster will be comprised of 25 people who are human and flawed. The whole Dodgers team is imperfect in many ways (just like the competition), let’s hope most of them can reach down and find that something special thing in the playoffs. We all know this flawed team including Jansen is very capable of dominating the competition.
As I said previously Kershaw always owns it. If I was on the opposing team I would look at Kenley as… https://t.co/loKr0sH3HA
I have been saying that Jansen needs to go for over 2 years. He gets paid for saving games at the cost of us fans.(Millions of dollars he never deserved) Jansen has always had that individual ego blown demeanor! Hes has just now exposed his real side and there is more to come. If he has already made negative horrible comments about us fans in the open imagine what he states in the background! Anyways I’m so over that guy that doesn’t come through.
So for all you that backs up Jansen, Good luck trying to depend on him in the playoffs where he has failed us tremendously. I guess you are okay with our Dodgers not winning it all… Get rid of him now!!!