Jansen stung by Cubs after Buehler spins gem

LOS ANGELES -- Dodgers fans began the night booing Yu Darvish and ended it booing Kenley Jansen.

Fans are tough, and so is pitching. One night after striking out the side for a save, Jansen allowed a two-run homer to Anthony Rizzo for a 2-1 Dodgers loss to the Cubs, wasting seven scoreless innings from Walker Buehler and snapping a seven-game home win streak.

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In 24 hours, Jansen spanned the spectrum. He creatively deployed an intentional balk on Friday along the way to his 20th save. But on Saturday night, tasked with protecting a one-run lead provided by Alex Verdugo’s 459-foot homer, Jansen hit Kris Bryant with his first pitch that wasn’t close to the plate, fell behind Rizzo, 2-0, then pulled a cutter over the inner half of the plate that Rizzo pulled into the Cubs’ bullpen.

“Just being wild. Even the ball he hit was supposed to be a fastball away. He got me,” said Jansen. “Can’t let this one game affect the next one. Not the first one, not the last one. Got to shake it off and stay positive. It’s just one game.”

Jansen said he was struggling warming up in the bullpen and nothing improved when he entered the game. Rizzo has homered in the last two games, has 19 on the season and has 12 RBIs in his last seven games against the Dodgers.

“It was more me than them,” said Jansen. “Rizzo’s a really good hitter. But me being wild today, he’s a good hitter and he’ll get you if you continue to miss. I missed two away and I yanked it in and he got me. You’ve got to respect they’re a really good team. I didn’t make pitches and I got punished.”

Not including the postseason, Rizzo is 5-for-11 with two homers off Jansen.

"He's one of the best,” said Rizzo. “You just tell yourself, you don't ever try to go for a home run off guys like that, because you'll end up getting jammed or pop up. So, you really just try to take your singles and put a good swing on the ball and that's it. Fortunately, I ran into one."

It was the third blown save of the season for Jansen (2-2) and the bullpen has suffered 14 of the Dodgers’ 24 losses this year.

“It’s tough when you lose a game in the ninth inning, but Kenley’s been throwing the ball really well, and it’s going to happen. It was a really good baseball game,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “We’ve got Hyun-Jin [Ryu] going tomorrow and we’ll be ready to win a series.”

Until that pitch to Rizzo, the storyline of the game was a Buehler-Darvish pitchers’ duel, the former flirting with a no-hitter and leaving after seven scoreless innings, the latter returning to the Dodger Stadium mound for the first time since his meltdown in Game 7 of the 2017 World Series.

“They are the best team in the NL,” said Darvish. “Also, I had a bad couple starts, the last couple games with the Dodgers. So, this was really important in my life. I think now I can move forward. I pitched good here.”

Buehler doesn’t shy from the spotlight and he wasn’t about to share it with Darvish. Both went seven innings and allowed two hits, but Buehler had a shutout when he left. He flirted with a no-hitter until back-to-back one-out singles in the sixth inning by Addison Russell and Kyle Schwarber. He kept Chicago off the board, but the extra pitches helped cut his outing short.

In his last seven starts, Buehler’s ERA has dropped from 4.95 to 3.06. In June alone, Buehler has allowed one run in 22 innings with 26 strikeouts and one walk.

“It was cool,” said Buehler. “Obviously, Darvish, being back here, it was cool for us, we all like him. I get where the fans are coming from, but at the same time he’s a good guy and it was fun pitching against him.”

The Dodgers had a chance to add an insurance run in the eighth inning when they had three singles, but after leading off the inning with a single, Enrique Hernandez was picked off first base.

“That’s a tough one to give away an out right there,” Roberts said.