The Los Angeles Dodgers went into the All-Star break on a positive note as they defeated the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim to finish the first half of the season in first place in the National League West.
All-Star closer Kenley Jansen finished out the victory, tossing a perfect ninth to earn his 27th save of the season, which is tied for the NL lead.
Him closing out the game was good to see considering Jansen surrendered a game-winning home run to Kole Calhoun in the 10th innings of Saturday’s loss.
Losing and not performing well is not something that sits well with Jansen, so he said he was a man on a mission on Sunday using Saturday’s outing as motivation to get the job done, via Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times:
“I’m sitting at home [Saturday] feeling down because of one bad pitch,” said Jansen, who flew to Washington on Sunday night for his third consecutive All-Star game. “That motivated me to come out today and pitch well.”
Jansen said after giving up that home run to Calhoun that everything was fine with him physically and mentally, and he proved that by returning to his usual self a day later before heading to Washington D.C. for his third straight Midsummer Classic.
As has been the case in previous years, having Jansen pitching at a high level will be a key for the Dodgers down the stretch of the season and into the postseason.
Because of that, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts implied that Jansen will not pitch in Tuesday’s All-Star Game so he could have four straight days of rest before the start of the season half.
Jansen completed the first half with a 2.33 ERA, 3.25 FIP and 0.93 WHIP while striking out 48 and walking 12 in 46.1 innings.
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