The Los Angeles Dodgers suffered a heartbreaking loss on Friday night at the hands of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, leading 2-1 with two outs in the ninth inning before the Angels rallied off closer Kenley Jansen to complete a 3-2 walk-off victory.
The rally began when Jansen issued a two-out walk to Shohei Ohtani despite being ahead of him 0-2 in the count.
That walk proved costly when Ohtani stole second and quickly advanced to third on a throwing error by Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal. He scored just a pitch later on a single by David Fletcher, tying the game at two.
Los Angeles’ defensive miscues didn’t end there though as when Ian Kinsler followed with a single to right field, Yasiel Puig bobbled the ball and then when he fired it home, it got past Grandal. Jansen was not backing up home, so Fletcher was easily able to score the winning run.
While it is difficult to blame a loss on one specific person, Jansen put it on himself after the game, via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“This game is on me today,” said Jansen, who suffered his third blown save, but first since April 27. “I take all the blame. I’ve got to be backing up home plate. I saw the guy stop at third. I kind of stopped with him instead of keep going. I take this loss, all the blame on me.”
Not only was Jansen angry at himself for not backing up home plate, but he also was not happy that he walked Ohtani when he was just one pitch away from ending the game:
“Unacceptable,” said Jansen. “0-2, had him where I wanted to. Feel like I lost my feel. That walk irritated me, but I’ve got to keep my composure.”
After a rough start to the season, Jansen has been lights out for the Dodgers in recent weeks as he converted 22 straight saves before blowing this one.
Friday night’s loss is something that Jansen and the rest of his teammate will want to forget as soon as possible, and a win Saturday afternoon would certainly help them do that.
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