As the Dodgers look to sweep the Rockies this afternoon, the thoughts turn back to last night, and the performance of Kenley Jansen. Jansen got the final four outs for his third save, retiring Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki for the last two outs to end the game. It has been an amazing journey for Jansen, who 14 months ago was a catcher with a great arm who couldn't hit and now looks like a potential dominant closer in the making.
Among Dodgers with 20 or more innings in a season, in the 127-year history of the franchise, Jansen ranks...
-
3rd in ERA (0.72)
- 2nd in ERA+ (544)
- 3rd in K/9 (12.96)
- 1st in H/9 (3.96)
In addition, the 102 batters Jansen has faced is the 9th most in Dodgers' history without allowing a home run since the club moved to Los Angeles.
For today's game, Carlos Monasterios gets the start, but I wouldn't expect him to last long. In his last four starts, the last coming on September 12, Monasterios has pitched a total of 12 innings, allowing a total of 36 baserunners and 13 runs. He last pitched five innings on July 30.
Today's matchup was supposed to be a battle of 22-year old pitchers, but with Clayton Kershaw shelved for the rest of the week, we will have to settle for one. Jhoulys Chacin is putting together quite a season for the Rockies. At 22, he is putting up better numbers than Ubaldo Jimenez did at age 24:
Pitcher |
Year |
Age |
IP |
BB/9 |
K/9 |
ERA |
FIP |
WHIP |
Chacin |
2010 |
22 |
132.1 |
3.94 |
8.91 |
3.26 |
3.49 |
1.270 |
Jimenez |
2008 |
24 |
198.2 |
4.67 |
7.79 |
3.99 |
3.83 |
1.435 |
By scoring nine runs last night, the Dodgers are now at 649 runs on the season, assuring they will average over four runs per game this year.
UPDATE: One night after declaring Clayton Kershaw's season over, the Dodgers announced today that he will in fact start Friday night at home, giving him one more start at Dodger Stadium. Chad Billingsley will start Saturday, followed by Ted Lilly Sunday.
Game Time: 12:10 p.m.
TV: Prime Ticket