Bobby Jenks wants everyone to ‘chill out’

With closer Bobby Jenks struggling Ozzie Guillen said before last night’s game that he’d go with matchups in the ninth inning, but Jenks ended up getting the save anyway after Guillen used southpaw Matt Thornton in the eighth inning versus left-handed hitters Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau. Thornton may have gotten the save chance had Minnesota’s big lefty bats been up in the ninth inning instead, but clearly Jenks hasn’t totally lost his grip on the job. And clearly he thinks that’s the way it should be, because here’s what Jenks had to say about the whole situation after notching his sixth save of the season:

That’s the thing I don’t understand, all the stuff going on. I mean it’s one game. Everyone is hitting the panic button in f***ing April. Chill out. I don’t want to say everything I want to say, but it was one bad game. The game before that I gave up a solo home run, the wind is blowing out 20 mph, what are you going to do? I really don’t want to comment on it too much because I really don’t want to start anything, but it was one game. It was one f***ing game. Things happen.

I’m not normally someone who sticks up for White Sox, but Jenks is absolutely right. He’s no longer the elite, dominant closer he was a few years ago and may pitch himself out of the job at some point, but he certainly hasn’t done it yet with just one blown save in seven tries and 17 strikeouts in 13 innings. I also liked this Jenks quote, about giving up a double to former teammate Jim Thome last night: “He keeps doing that, I know where he lives. I’ll just toilet paper his house.”