Harris homers twice, but Mariners turn tide on Jansen

SEATTLE -- Instead of celebrating Michael Harris II’s first career two-homer performance and what would have been the season’s greatest comeback victory, Braves manager Brian Snitker found himself answering questions about closer Kenley Jansen at T-Mobile Park on Sunday.

“He was pretty good on Friday night,” Snitker said. “He just had a bad day, that’s all. He’s leading the league in saves.”

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Unfortunately for Jansen, none of his MLB-high 33 saves or Friday’s perfect inning mattered as he allowed a pair of ninth-inning home runs in an 8-7 loss to the Mariners. Making the blown save more painful was the fact the Braves had taken the lead by tallying five runs with two outs in the top of the ninth.

“I can’t look back,” Jansen said. “We’ve got another game tomorrow. I’ve got to continue to battle and stay positive.”

How quickly can emotions change within the baseball world? Well, when the Braves ran their winning streak to eight games with Friday’s victory, they moved into sole possession of first place in the National League East for the first time this season. But after losing the final two games of the series at T-Mobile Park, they are now 1 1/2 games behind the Mets.

This latest loss came in the midst of a postseason setting. A sold-out crowd saw Harris, Julio Rodríguez and Eugenio Suárez each enjoy two-homer games. Harris and Rodríguez became the first set of players in AL/NL history aged 21 or younger to have two-homer performances in the same game.

“It’s a tough loss, but nothing to hang our heads about,” Harris said.

With 22 games remaining, the Braves can still capture a fifth consecutive division title and gain an enviable bye to begin the postseason. But with no room for error over the next few weeks, there is reason to question whether the team can afford to keep Jake Odorizzi in the rotation and Jansen in the closer’s role.

Snitker said he’s not the guy to ask about Odorizzi, who had the Braves in a hole on Sunday after allowing four runs over just 3 2/3 innings. But while the front office might decide whether Kyle Muller gets promoted to replace Odorizzi, Snitker will have to decide how to use Jansen, who has blown seven of 40 save opportunities, including three of his past seven.

“Today, he didn’t have it and we lost the game,” Snitker said of Jansen. “That’s a tough job. One of the toughest jobs in baseball is pitching that ninth inning.”

Few know this better than Jansen, who ranks ninth all-time with 383 career saves. The challenge of this latest assignment was enhanced by the fact that it didn’t look like he’d be needed. Harris hit a three-run homer with two outs in the ninth and Robbie Grossman gave the Braves a 7-6 lead with a two-run homer two batters later.

“We had the potential to have one of our biggest wins of the year, but they’re good, too,” Snitker said.

Rodríguez drilled a hanging slider over the left-field wall for a one-out homer in the ninth, and Suárez ended the game by hitting his walk-off homer against a flat two-seamer. This was just the fourth time in 755 career appearances Jansen has allowed two homers in a game. The only previous time he’d done so in a save situation was May 18, 2013, when the Braves beat the Dodgers courtesy of the back-to-back, ninth-inning homers Evan Gattis and Andrelton Simmons hit against Jansen.

“Stuff like that happens,” Jansen said. “You can call it unlucky or whatever. I can’t let this bother me. I’ve been through this situation too many times. It can look ugly now to all you guys. But you just have to stay patient with it.”

Jansen allowed two runs in both of his final two August appearances and then seemed to find a groove as he kept opponents scoreless in four of his five September appearances. This latest outing caused the veteran obvious pain, but it also seemed to motivate him.

“You’ve just got to look forward,” Jansen said. “It’s happened to me in many other situations. Sometimes things don’t look the way anybody wants it to look. I just have to make it positive.”