In a quest to find better consistency with his mechanics, Kenley Jansen spoke with Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts about making more regular appearances. The arrangement they agreed upon is to have Jansen pitch once per series, even in a non-save situation.
Under that plan, Jansen was essentially guaranteed to appear in Thursday’s series finale against the Miami Marlins. While the Dodgers’ preference may have been for that to be in a potential save for Jansen, or with the lead, they instead trailed 13-7 when he took the mound in the seventh inning.
Jansen allowed a two-out double but also struck out a pair in his scoreless inning of work. His appearance ended on a heated exchange with an animated Jansen showing a baseball to home-plate umpire Nic Lentz.
Following the Dodgers’ loss, Jansen explained his frustration with the balls while also apologizing for his approach, as seen on SportsNet LA:
“The ball is supposed to be rubbed. I threw like four or five (out). It’s not cool just having balls out there that you just misfire, you don’t know where it’s going. … They couldn’t do anything about it. He told me the Dodgers have to deal with it. I apologized to him; I kind of came a little hard. You’re going to be emotional out there competing and trying to get better. I don’t do this often but when you have enough, it’s like get this [right]. I talked to other pitchers and they felt the same way.”
Each home team is responsible for preparing that game’s baseballs by rubbing mud on them and gaining approval from an umpire before putting them into play.
Adding further credence to Jansen’s claim, four different players were hit by a pitch Thursday. Jon Berti was plunked twice, with Walker Buehler responsible for both.
Buehler lacked command as he labored through four-plus innings in his shortest start since April, but his struggles were largely attributed to ongoing inconsistency in road outings as opposed to a potential lack of feel on the baseball.
