The Los Angeles Dodgers dropped a fifth consecutive series with Sunday’s 2-1 loss to the L.A. Angels at Angel Stadium. The offense mustered just four hits, but stayed within striking distance the entire game behind a stellar pitching effort from Trevor Bauer and the bullpen.
Bauer went six strong innings, giving up just two runs on four hits with nine strikeouts. He was followed by Victor Gonzalez and Kenley Jansen, who each threw a scoreless inning.
For Jansen, it was his first appearance since blowing a save against the Chicago Cubs on May 5. He allowed one hit and issued an intentional walk, but struck out two batters, including Mike Trout with a runner in scoring position.
Angels manager Joe Maddon praised Jansen after the game and believes the all-time Dodgers saves leader has returned to an elite level, per J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group:
More Maddon, without prompt: "I know Lagares punched out, but I’m here to tell you Jansen’s got his stuff back. I haven’t seen that in a while."
— J.P. Hoornstra (@jphoornstra) May 9, 2021
The 2021 season hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing for Jansen thus far, but he is still getting it done on the mound. In 14 appearances, he owns a solid 1.88 ERA and career-best 2.5 hits per nine over 14.1 innings pitched.
Jansen’s biggest issue this season has been his command, as he’s allowing a career-worst 8.8 walks per nine. His strikeouts have also dropped to a personal-low, but his velocity encouragingly has seen an uptick from the previous year.
Roberts: ‘Things are turning’ for Dodgers despite Freeway Series loss
Despite scoring just two runs in Sunday’s Freeway Series loss to the Angels, the Dodgers tied a season high with nine walks and had at least one baserunner in eight of nine innings.
That was a bright spot manager Dave Roberts pointed out after the game. “We got a lot of guys on base, we just didn’t get a couple hits in good situations,” he said.
“We took nine walks, at-bat quality was really good, but you’ve got to get that hit or a couple hits. They got a big hit with two outs. I wouldn’t even say it was a mistake from Trevor that was the difference in the ballgame.
“Honestly, I think things are turning. I really do. It’s easy to look at the result — we put up one run — but I just think the body of work the last few days has been a lot better. … I think if you look at the at-bat quality, Justin barreled some balls and didn’t have anything to show for that, we took a bunch of walks, got the starter out of there after four-plus.
“That’s a pretty positive start to the day as far as momentum. We certainly didn’t tack on when we had guys in scoring position, but I think if you look back the last 17, 18 days, there was a lot more empty at-bats than we’ve seen the last couple games.”
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