Kenley Jansen allows run, still gets save vs. A’s

Jansen’s save was his 17th of the year. He retired the side in order while recording a strikeout against the Rays Tuesday. It was career save No. 493 for Jansen, who’s third on the all-time saves list behind Hall-of-Famers Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman.

It’s the fifth time in his long career that Jansen has allowed two homers; it happened once in 2013, twice in 2018, once in 2022 and once last year, when the Tigers actually homered off him three times while he was pitching for the Angels. The blown save was Jansen’s fifth of the year but first since May 24. As much as this loss hurt, Jansen, who had a 1.35 ERA since the beginning of July, should remain the Tigers’ primary closer for now.

Jansen’s save was his 16th of the season. He retired the side in order while recording two strikeouts. It was career save No. 492 for Jansen, who has allowed only two runs in his last 14 appearances (1.37 ERA). He has a 3.74 ERA on the year.

It wasn’t exactly an inspiring performance -- he allowed two sharp lineouts -- but Jansen had a 1-2-3 inning against the heart of the Guardians order to secure a 3-0 lead. He has a 1.50 WHIP in his last 15 games with 11 walks in 14 2/3 innings, so this remains tenuous, but he’s the clear closer here.

It’s his 490th career save. Working with a three-run lead, Jansen gave up a leadoff single and then walked back-to-back batters with one out, loading the bases. However, he got out of the jam with a routine sac fly to right and a grounder to second. Jansen has converted all seven of his save chances since coming off the IL in June. Since the beginning of July, he’s allowed only two runs despite walking nine in 11 1/3 innings. Jansen threw 29 pitches tonight, so the Tigers might look to Tyler Holton or someone else to close Wednesday.

He got a pinch-hitting Jac Caglianone to fly out, then struck out Vinnie Pasquantino and induced a Nick Loftin pop-up to end it. Jansen’s season has been rough, but he’s thrown seven straight scoreless innings to lower his season ERA to 3.90 and his WHIP to 1.23.

It hasn’t always been easy for Jansen this season, and this one was no exception for the 38-year-old hurler. He issued a leadoff walk to Shea Langeliers and then fell behind Jonah Heim before roaring back to strike him out. The veteran right-hander then allowed a single to Jacob Wilson to bring the tying run to the plate. He then got Lawrence Butler to line out to shortstop and Tyler Soderstom to line out to first to end it. He has now converted 11 of his 15 save chances on the year to go with a 4.76 ERA.

Jansen was able to get the save while throwing just 10 pitches and not allowing a hit, not getting a strikeout and not giving up a walk. It’s now 10 saves for the 38-year-old, and his ERA dips to a still-disappointing 4.98 on the campaign.

It was still a 3-0 game entering the ninth, but A.J. Hinch trusted Montero over Kenley Jansen today, apparently. Montero didn’t give him any reason not to, retiring nine of the 10 batters he faced. He got zero strikeouts and not even a single missed swing, but none of the nine balls in play against him turned into hits. The one batter to reach against him did so by walking. Montero could be a candidate for more three-inning saves as a reliever, though it’s also quite possible he’ll return to the rotation at some point.

Jansen needed just seven pitches to navigate a scoreless ninth inning in a tied game, including a strikeout of Jeremy Pena. That prompted A.J. Hinch to send him back out there for the 10th, but that may have been a mistake. The 38-year-old hurler gave up an RBI single to Isaac Paredes and a three-run blast to Christian Walker before mercifully being removed. He now holds a miserable 5.31 ERA over 20 1/3 innings on the season to go with his nine saves.