Only three players remain from the 2013 Los Angeles Dodgers roster that started their current run of six straight National League West titles. During that era, Clayton Kershaw, Kenley Jansen and Hyun-Jin Ryu have experienced six straight years of October disappointments, including falling short in the World Series in 2017 and 2018.
While Ryu, who also missed nearly all of 2015 and 2016 due to a torn labrum and elbow trouble, is having a career-best year that netted him his first-ever All-Star Game appearance, both Kershaw and Jansen — leaders of the Dodgers’ pitching staff throughout this entire era — seem to be starting their declines.
Kershaw is past his prime, but has adjusted to his decreased velocity enough to earn an eighth All-Star appearance in nine years. Jansen, meanwhile, recorded a career-high 3.01 ERA in 2018 and is on pace to have an even higher mark in 2019.
He missed the making the NL All-Star team this season for the first time since 2016 and has already blown three saves, though he has also had some dominant stretches in the first half of 2019.
However, Jansen is unconcerned with his early-season performance as long as he excels in the postseason, via AM 570 L.A. Sports:
“Listen man, I don’t need to peak in March. I need to peak in October, November. That’s when I need to peak. I want to peak in the playoffs this year. That’s when I want to be my best. The way our team is going right now, I’ve felt great knowing that we have a good chance to make the playoffs. All my focus is to get better day in and day out, help my teammates win games. Not thinking ahead of yourself but to prepare yourself. Listen man, we win this division so much already that it’s time to bring a championship back to L.A. That’s where my focus is.”
Jansen has a career 2.08 ERA in the postseason but has struggled in the World Series. He has allowed four home runs over nine total appearances in the Fall Classic, including the infamous game-tying ninth inning shot to Marwin Gonzalez in 2017.
That home run allowed the Houston Astros to rally and beat the Dodgers in Game 2, tying the series at one game apiece. Houston, of course, went on to win in seven games.
Jansen allowed a game-tying home run in Game 3 of the 2018 World Series, which the Dodgers eventually won in 18 innings, and did so again in the eighth inning in Game 4, a momentum-shifting shot from eventual series MVP Steave Pearce.
With the Dodgers holding a comfortable double-digit lead in the NL West, Jansen knows that if they are to finally get over the World Series hump, they will need him at his best in October and, possibly, November.
