"Mad Friars" Los Angeles Dodgers vs San Diego Padres
San Diego-- It was another day of Dodgers baseball. And it was also another day of Kenley Jansen blowing a game. But the Dodgers managed to overcome an early 2-0 deficit to defeat the San Diego Padres 6-4 in an extra-inning affair.
Dodgers fans are not going to like what I have to say, but I don't care. Kenley Jansen is the closer, whether you approve of it or not. I understand he has blown four games in the World Series the past two years and has a league-high seven blown saves this season.
But, the Dodgers are not going to mess with their closer's psyche, especially since it's a little fragile at the moment. And the Dodgers are not going to replace Jansen with Joe Kelly, because he hasn’t proved himself yet and quite frankly is even more unreliable as a closer.
So bottom-line: the Los Angeles Dodgers do not have many options for a closer.
Of course, you can say, "Andrew Friedman should have traded for a closer." But is it worth selling your farm system for one bullpen piece, such as Felpe Vasquez, that could blow up in your face?
No, it is not, it's a crapshoot.
So please Dodgers fans, I beg of you, please be a little more reasonable and a little more patient. If the bullpen falters in October once again for the seventh straight year, then it's time for an open dialogue about changes. But at the moment, just chill.
Before the All-Star break, the Padres had wild-card aspirations. Sitting at 45-45 and winning 3 out of 4 in Los Angeles, they were feeling confident.
But the classic "dog days of summer" got to them. They have floundered since with a 16-31 stretch, putting them out of reach of the wild card.
Right now, they are playing for pride.
The Padres started the scoring early with an RBI single from Hialeah native Eric Hosmer, and a sacrifice fly from Hunter Renfroe to put Kenta Maeda and the Dodgers in a 2-0 hole.
With the Padres plan in place, they started bullpen arm Trey Wingenter. After the perfect first inning, he encountered trouble in the second inning. He walked Cody Bellinger, and Chris Taylor singled to put runners on. Corey Seager then hit a groundout to score Bellinger and cut the deficit to 2-1.
After a Kike Hernandez walk, Luis Perdomo entered to protect a slim Padres lead. The plan completely backfired. Perdomo gave up a bases-loaded two-run single to Kenta Maeda, the pitcher, to give Los Angeles the 3-2 lead.
Luckily the Dodgers avoided a dreadful situation with Max Muncy leaving the game after being hit on the wrist by a 94 MPH fastball from Matt Strahm. Muncy escaped without any structural damage, but he won't undergo X-rays until Thursday.
Francisco Mejia led-off with a soft flyball that landed in for a fluke double after Taylor misplayed his dive. After Mejia advanced on a flyout, Jansen fired a pitch 10-feet over catcher Russell Martin's head to let the tying run score.
Of course, he retired the next two hitters like it was nothing. But the damage was already done. Jansen tied his career-high for blown saves with seven, which is unacceptable for an All-Star.
Hopefully, he takes everyone out for dinner this week since he was bailed out by the offense once again.
Or maybe he should pay for Luis Urias dinner since he was the one that bailed out Jansen.
Padres rookie Luis Urias threw a routine ball over the first baseman to score the go-ahead run in the 10th inning. A.J. Pollock then lined an RBI single to add some insurance for Casey Sadler, who logged his first career save.