"Angry Birds" Toronto Blue Jays vs Los Angeles Dodgers August 21st
Los Angeles-- When it gets intense at home, the Los Angeles Dodgers always seem to find a way to win.
The story of the night was not Max Muncy's walk-off home run, if you can believe it. The story of the night was Kenley Jansen blowing his sixth save opportunity of the season, his most since 2012.
Unfortunately, the fans at Chavez Ravine were not going to let him get away with it. As he walked off the field with his head down, he was showered with boos after every step he took. I am not sure how many times I have said this the past two seasons, but Kenley Jansen gave up another game-tying home run in the ninth inning to big man Rowdy Tellez.
With Jansen's diminished "stuff" it was evident he could not put away Rowdy Tellez after the long eight-pitch at-bat. Jansen tried to put away Tellez by busting him inside with his patented cutter, but to no avail. Until finally, Jansen tried to place one more cutter inside. Tellez smashed it into the Los Angeles night over the right-field wall.
Luckily it did not cost them anything as they escaped with a 2-1 victory over the raw star-studded Toronto Blue Jays.
But the Kenley Jansen concern is becoming a huge dilemma, whether you want to believe it or not.
After Tuesday night’s 16-3 beatdown, the Jays swore they would make tonight's game more competitive, and boy did they ever.
Walker Buehler started on the mound for Los Angeles as he was opposed by former Dodger Wilmer Font for the Jays.
Even though it was a bullpen game for Toronto, they still did an excellent job neutralizing the Dodgers bats.
Buehler had an uncharacteristically rough outing last week against the lowly Miami Marlins. He looked to bounce back after he allowed five runs in only four innings of work.
Tonight's game in Los Angeles was the opposite. He shut down the Jays pitching seven scoreless innings, no walks, eight strikeouts and scattered five hits in an astounding start.
After the scorching hot bats were shut down throughout the evening, Will Smith pounded another home run off the left-field foul pole to start the scoring at 1-0.
Let's fast forward into the 8th when Joe Kelly took over.
In his last 7 1/3 innings pitched he has yet to give up a run with three hits, ten strikeouts, and one walk. Say what you want about Kelly, but he has been virtually untouchable. That continued tonight as he produced an easy 1-2-3 scoreless inning.
After Jansen blew the save, the Dodgers got a scoreless 10th inning out of Pedro Baez, who is quite used to hearing boos from the Dodgers’ faithful.
Then, a half-inning later, the man, the myth, the Legend- Max Muncy blistered his 33rd home run to win the game for Los Angeles.
The Dodgers improve to 84-44, which is a 106-win pace. They lead the National League West by 20 games over the San Francisco Giants. They will try to go for the sweep tomorrow at 10:10 PM EST with Kenta Maeda on the hill.