How serious is Kenley Jansen’s cardiac arrhythmia?

Posted on August 30, 2012 by J.P. Hoornstra

Kenley Jansen‘s latest bout with cardiac arrhythmia has the Dodgers scrambling–scrambling to get the 24-year-old right-hander back to the mound and scrambling to put together a ninth-inning committee in the meantime.

Long-term, it seems as if the onus is on Jansen to take better care of himself than he did after being diagnosed with a cardiac arrhythmia in July of last year.

“We’re going to have to make sure he understands everything he needs to do to take care of himself,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said.

After last year’s incident, Jansen was ordered to take prescription blood pressure medication and to avoid caffeine. He’s hinted at least once that he neglected the no-caffeine order, however, and it’s possible that stubbornness played a role in Jansen’s relapse.

“With young guys,” Mattingly said, “it’s likeyou tell them what they shouldn’t do, and then they start feeling good and forget about what you shouldn’t do. ‘You should be doing this every day, you should be doing that every day.’ You’re young, you don’t take things as seriously as you probably should.

“That’s why we’ve got to be so serious about it. Everybody involved has to say ’100 percent healthy, not taking any risk.’ Somebody else has to say that.”

Ronald Belisario, who closed out Wednesday night’s game in Colorado, said that he spoke to Jansen yesterday.

“It’s a possibility that he’ll come back,” Belisario said. “He doesn’t know yet.”

Jansen was scheduled to meet with a doctor Wednesday for further evaluations.

Indians 4, Dodgers 3.

Posted on March 19, 2012 by J.P. Hoornstra

Clayton Kershaw allowed his first run of the spring but overall appeared to be in opening-day form, while the Dodgers’ bullpen struggled in a loss before 3,101 at Goodyear Ballpark. [box score]

Kershaw allowed three hits, walked two and struck out five in 5 1/3 innings in his third spring start. He exited just shy of 80 pitches, which was his limit; Dodgers manager Don Mattingly mistakenly said Kershaw would be limited to 90 earlier Monday.

Javy Guerra entered an immediately served up a long home run to Carlos Santana, the former Dodgers prospect. Kenley Jansen threw a scoreless seventh inning, but Scott Elbert allowed two runs (on two singles and a walk) in the eighth inning.

That proved to be the difference, as the Dodgers’ two-run, ninth inning rally fell short. Justin Sellers went 3-for-4 and five others collected one hit apiece. Some notable 0-fers: Jerry Hairston (0-3), Juan Rivera (0-3) and James Loney (0-2, walk).

A few more notes:

Continue reading →

Dodgers 5, Rangers 2.

Posted on March 16, 2012 by J.P. Hoornstra

James Loney, back in the lineup after being sidelined by a strained calf muscle, went 2-for-3 with his first home run of the spring in a 5-2 win over the Texas Rangers before an announced crowd of 11,082 at Camelback Ranch. [box score]

“James was out a couple days, came right back and looked exactly the same,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. “Seems like he’s confident. Should be an interesting year for him.”

Loney is hitting .357/..471/1.113 with four RBIs in four at-bats.

Juan Rivera and Juan Uribe also had two hits apiece as the Dodgers (8-3-2) started their expected opening-day lineup against the Rangers’ Greg Reynolds. The right-hander lasted three innings, giving up seven hits, four runs (four earned), walking one and striking out two.

Starter Ted Lilly allowed one hit — a triple — and no runs in four innings of work
against the Rangers. The left-hander struck out two, walked none and threw 27
of his 44 pitches for strikes.

Lilly said the results “were probably better than I threw the ball,” but the manager liked what he saw.

“His stuff is crisper right now than it was last year for sure,” Mattingly said.

Javy Guerra, Scott Elbert, Wilfredo Ledezma and Scott Rice threw scoreless innings out of the bullpen. Kenley Jansen allowed both Texas runs, on solo home runs by Brandon Snyder and Alberto Gonzalez.

A few more notes:

Continue reading →

Dodgers 10, White Sox 6.

Posted on March 10, 2012 by J.P. Hoornstra

The Dodgers concluded a long day of baseball with a ninth-inning rally against the Chicago White Sox before an announced crowd of 8,310 at Camelback Ranch on Saturday. [box score]

Cory Sullivan’s grand slam — his first home run of the spring –capped the comeback win for the Dodgers (4-1-2), who trailed 6-5 after the White Sox scored the go-ahead run off Michael Antonini in the eighth inning.

The game began at 7:05 p.m. local time and ended three hours and 39 minutes later (the Dodgers’ two games Saturday lasted a combined 6 hours and 16 minutes). Players and coaches get to report bright and early tomorrow for a 12 p.m. game against the Cubs –they had played no earlier than 1 p.m. local time through the first week.

With the teams even at 5-5, Antonini surrendered an RBI double to Ray Olmedo in the bottom of the eighth inning. But Ivan DeJesus scored from third base on a wild pitch to tie the game at 6 in the top of the ninth. That merely set the stage for Sullivan’s dramatic grand slam.

Chad Billingsley struggled in his second Cactus League start, allowing six hits and three runs –all earned –in 2 1/3 innings. His line would’ve looked better if Josh Lindblom had not allowed a three-run homer to Tyler Flowers, the first batter he faced out of the bullpen. Both runners belonged to Billingsley.

“I struggled a little bit early just finding my rhythm,” he said, “but overall I was pretty happy. My curveball was sharp. I threw some changeups, my fastball was missing a little down and off the plate but that’ll come.”

While Nate Eovaldi threw three innings earlier in the day, Billingsley appeared to get a quick hook, but that wasn’t necessarily the case. He said he was given a pitch count in the 50-60 range, not an innings quota (Billingsley threw 53 pitches).

Juan Rivera and Jerry Hairston Jr. hit home runs. One day after his minor heart scare, Kenley Jansen pitched a scoreless seventh inning, allowing one hit and striking out one.

Dodgers 9, Rangers 0.

Posted on March 9, 2012 by J.P. Hoornstra

In their most lopsided result of the spring, the Dodgers crushed a Rangers lineup that featured all but one of their projected opening-day starters. [box score]

Clayton Kershaw, making his first Cactus League start, allowed three hits and a walk in three innings against his hometown team. He induced consecutive comebackers to Josh Hamilton (on a grounder) and Adrian Beltre (line drive) to end the first inning. Kershaw also picked off Nelson Cruz at first base; of his 42 pitches, 28 were strikes.

“This is as normal as it gets,” Kershaw said. “I threw everything –some sliders, curveballs; my changeup was terrible.”

In what the Dodgers hope is a normal occurrence, Matt Kemp went 2-for-2 with a home run, Juan Rivera batted cleanup and belted his first home run of the spring, and Andre Ethier went 2-for-2 with a triple. Prospect Alex Castellanos hit his second home run of the spring, his second in as many days.

The Dodgers are 3-1-1 after starting 2-6 last season, but manager Don Mattingly isn’t placing value on results yet — even a lopsided victory. “I’d much rather see us swing the bats,” he said, “but I also know we’ll hit a stretch where we don’t score.”

A few more notes:
Continue reading →

Jansen leaves camp with “fluttering” heart.

Posted on March 9, 2012 by J.P. Hoornstra

Kenley Jansen left the Dodgers’ spring training facility Friday after reporting symptoms a team spokesperson described as a “fluttering” heart.

Update (11:20 a.m.): Jansen returned to Camelback Ranch after being examined by Dr. John Monroe and played long toss under the supervision of team trainer Nancy Patterson. Afterward, Jansen said he felt fine, though he admitted the incident “scared me a little bit.”

“Last night I kind of woke up with my heart beating fast,” he said. “Not out of rhythm, but it was just going pretty fast.”

Jansen said an accelerated heart beat woke him up around 2:30 in the morning –”I didn’t dream about anything, I just woke up” — and the symptoms persisted for around 30-40 minutes. He felt well enough in the morning to report to camp, where he was given an EKG test, then was taken to see the doctor as a precaution.
Continue reading →

Mattingly on the 9th inning: “I really don’t know what the right decision is.”

Posted on March 7, 2012 by J.P. Hoornstra

Kenley Jansen or Javy Guerra?

The question of who should pitch the ninth inning has entered Don Mattingly’s mind, even though Guerra was 21 for 23 in save opportunities last season –an outstanding 91.3 percent conversion rate. With both pitchers throwing a scoreless inning in their spring debut Wednesday, the question was put to Mattingly again: Have you thought about swapping their roles?

“It’s hard not to with those two,” he said. “Kenley with what he was able to do last year — but you guys look at the very end, but you don’t think about what happened at the beginning, and that’s how it got to there.”

For the uninitiated: Jansen had an 11.42 ERA through his first eight appearances of 2011. Once Jonathan Broxton’s season was over, Guerra grabbed the closer’s role, and was pretty firmly entrenched by the time Jansen was even part of the conversation. As a mostly middle-inning reliever, Jansen allowed only two runs the final four months of the season, displaying the makeup of a closer along the way.

“It’s hard not to think of Kenley kind of like that,” Mattingly said. “I’m going to go back to what I’ve always talked about: Javy kind of took that role last year and didn’t drop the ball. It’s hard to say to a guy ‘you didn’t do the job.’ He did the job. That’s kind of where I can see it right now.”
Continue reading →

A’s 3, Dodgers 3. Update.

Posted on March 7, 2012 by J.P. Hoornstra

The Dodgers and A’s were tied at 3 apiece after the top of the ninth inning at Phoenix Municipal Stadium on Wednesday, when everyone agreed to go home. [box score]

“Four veteran umpires out there,” manager Don Mattingly quipped after the Dodgers “moved” (to borrow a common hockey phrase) to 1-1-1.

Most of the Dodgers’ starting position players were given the day off, but it was the first live-game action for starting pitcher Aaron Harang and relievers Kenley Jansen, Scott Elbert and Javy Guerra, all of whom are expected to play important roles out of the bullpen this season.

Harang had an awful four-batter stretch in the first inning, allowing two doubles, two singles and two earned runs –all with two outs. Otherwise he was perfect, but left with the Dodgers trailing 2-0.

“That’s why we throw 5 or 6 starts throughout the spring,” said Harang. The left-hander had been dealing with foot soreness earlier in the spring but he said that was not an issue today.

Jansen, Elbert and Guerra all threw scoreless innings, though it was a bit of a struggle for Elbert and Guerra.

Elbert allowed a walk and a single with two outs in his lone inning, the sixth, then struck out the A’s Cedric Hunter with runners on first and third. Guerra allowed a pair of walks in the seventh but was bailed out by a double play when he struck out Josh Reddick, and Eric Sogard was caught stealing third base, to end the inning.

Cory Sullivan, getting his first Cactus League start in left field, went 3-for-4. The rest of the Dodgers lineup went 1 for 25.