DENVER _ Kenley Jansen emerged from the visiting team's bullpen in the Los Angeles Dodgers' 7-2 win at Coors Field on Saturday night to pitch in another high-leverage spot to record another four-out save, and rescue the Dodgers once again. But this outing was different. This was his first appearance in this ballpark's thin air since last June, since before an irregular heartbeat prompted a rush to a hospital last August and derailed his 2018 season. He hadn't returned to Colorado until the Dodgers arrived for this three-game series, after an offseason procedure remedied his condition and doctors cleared him. This was different.
Jansen entered with runners on first and second and two outs. Ian Desmond was in the batter's box for the Colorado Rockies. The Dodgers were clinging on to a three-run lead as the bullpen added another dollop of apprehension to this season. Jansen was their fourth pitcher of the inning. He did not wilt. He threw six cutters. They all hummed between 91 and 93 mph. Desmond swung through the sixth for a strikeout and slammed his bat in disgust. Jansen escaped.
His next act was stepping into the batter's box himself in the top of the ninth inning against left-hander Harrison Musgrave. A converted catcher, Jansen hadn't batted in a major league game since a 2017 National League Division Series, but owned a .429 career regular-season batting average. He was instructed not to swing anyway and struck out looking.
Jansen returned to the mound in the bottom of the frame with a bigger lead and concluded his night by completing his assignment in the ninth inning. He worked around a leadoff double by Mark Reynolds to finish his four-out save. He struck out pinch-hitter Garrett Hampson to end it.
After a brief season debut last Sunday, Walker Buehler supplied the start the Dodgers needed and the offense supplied enough. Cody Bellinger smacked a double and a triple. Alex Verdugo barreled the Dodgers' 22nd home run in nine games and tripled. Justin Turner reached base in each of his at-bats and the Dodgers generated three runs with three sacrifice flies.
The Dodgers could not afford another abbreviated outing from Buehler Saturday. There were restrictions on Buehler after he made just one start in spring training, but six days after he didn't record an out in the fourth inning in his season debut, the Dodgers needed him to pitch deeper into Saturday's game. The Dodgers bullpen's struggles in holding an eight-run lead Friday, which concluded with the club using six relievers, created the demand.
"It wasn't ideal," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts acknowledged.
The Dodgers fielded a left-handed-heavy potent lineup with an emphasis on offense over defense on Saturday. Max Muncy, a limited fielder who was a double short of the cycle in Friday's series opener, was given the start at second base. Bellinger played first base, allowing the Dodgers to insert Verdugo in right field for his first start in nearly a week.
The configuration did not yield the Dodgers' usual explosive results early. Right-hander Jon Gray held the visitors without a run through three innings with help from three double plays, one in each frame. The first two ended the first two innings. The third developed when Buehler struck out attempting to bunt with two strikes and Austin Barnes was thrown out at second base trying to steal.
Los Angeles broke through in the fourth inning. Gray initiated the scoring by plunking Turner with a fastball. Bellinger then thwacked a double into the right-field corner that advanced Turner to third base. A.J. Pollock followed with a run-scoring single before Muncy delivered a sacrifice fly to give the Dodgers a two-run lead.
The Dodgers added two more runs in the fifth inning with the same cast of characters. Turner ignited the scoring with a first-pitch single. Bellinger then walloped a ball off the top of the wall in left-center field for an RBI triple, just missing his seventh home run by inches. Pollock drove him in with another sacrifice fly. An inning later, Verdugo clubbed a solo home to chase Gray from the game and extend the Dodgers' franchise-record season-opening home run streak to nine games.
Buehler began the season in the Dodgers' rotation despite pitching in just one game in spring training. The result was an unsightly season debut last Sunday against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The 24-year-old Buehler exited before recording an out in the fourth inning. He didn't strike a batter out. He threw 66 pitches. The Diamondbacks fouled off 20 of them and swung and missed twice. Buehler's typical execution was absent.
"I think he's going to be motivated to pitch well," Roberts said before the game. "He was stressed in that game, kind of hit a wall."
Buehler was sharper in the league's most difficult pitching environment Saturday. With a fastball touching 98 mph, he held the Rockies to one run and three hits in five innings. He made one costly mistake, a 96-mph fastball up in the zone to David Dahl in the fourth inning. The ball landed 445 feet away in the second deck overlooking right field for a solo home run.
