The Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers are tied at one game apiece in the National League Championship Series, with both teams winning a one-run game at Miller Park.
The Dodgers came back to earn their victory on Saturday afternoon, erasing a 3-0 deficit to win, 4-3. Kenley Jansen got the save for the Dodgers, pitching a scoreless ninth.
Of course, it didn’t come without any drama though as Jansen walked Hernan Perez, which meant he had to face likely NL MVP Christian Yelich as the winning run with two outs. Jansen passed that test with flying colors, getting Yelich to ground out to third to end the game.
Yelich had worn out Jansen in the past, going 3-for-5 with a double, triple and three RBI against him in the regular season. Jansen was not worried about that previous success though, with his sole focus being on getting him out in this series, via Todd Zolecki of MLB.com:
“That’s the past,” Jansen said of Yelich’s prior success against him. “What you can control is today. You can’t control what happened in the past. You can’t put that in your mind. That means you’ve already beat your mind up. You’ve got to keep everything quiet and calm everything down. It’s about today. It’s about trying to steal one here.”
The 2018 season was a rocky one for Jansen but so far in the playoffs he has been nails, pitching three scoreless innings while allowing just one hit and striking out four in three appearances.
If the Dodgers want to return to and win the World Series, they will need their All-Star closer to continue being their ace at the end of the bullpen. It looks like Jansen is as focused as ever trying to get the job done.
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