[dropcap size=big]F[/dropcap]ollowing Kenley Jansen’s pitch that led to the devastating walk-off hit and the Dodgers losing game four of the World Series, Dodger fans went to Instagram to attack the pitcher and his family. It got so bad, Jansen turned off comments on posts. Nonetheless, Dodger fans continued posting vitriolic statements, including threats to his family and racist language in older posts.
Yesterday, Dodger fan accounts like @officialdodgersnation and Dodgers-LowDown condemned the personal attacks against Jansen. “To the people who did this, you should all be ashamed of yourselves,” posted Dodgers-Lowdown.
Jansen, who leads the Dodgers franchise with the most saves, is the 30th pitcher to reach 300 career saves. Conversely, that controversial pitch also set a new record in most saves blown.
During the post-game interview, Jansen told reporters, “I didn’t give up, one hard hit. What can I do?” He came into the 9th inning with a 7-6 lead, got a strike-out, single, lineout, and then walked Arozarena to put runners on first and second with two outs.
What happened next can only be described as the sloppiest, most chaotic ending to a World Series game in the history of baseball that fans are unfairly blaming Jansen for.
In this series of strange events that not even the baseball gods could predict, Dodger fans laid into Jansen, forgetting that Taylor, Muncy, and Smith all botched that relay.
Brett Phillips slaps a blooper to center field that Dodger, Chris Taylor, botched by slapping the ball away with his glove. One run scores. Arozarena falls and tumbles after rounding third base. Taylor chases down the ball and relays it to the first baseman, Max Muncy. Arozarena picks himself up and starts heading back to third when Muncy fires the ball to catcher Will Smith who got ahead of himself and spun the glove around towards the plate before catching the ball. The ball gets away and Arozarena dives home. Game over.
In this series of strange events that not even the baseball gods could predict, Dodger fans laid into Jansen, forgetting that Taylor, Muncy, and Smith all botched that relay. At best, Jansen earned a run, the game would have been tied, and the Dodgers head into extra innings. At worst, well, it happened.
There’s plenty of blame to go around, which seems to be the only thing Dodger fans have become good at during these painful post-season games we’ve grown used to. You could even blame manager Dave Roberts for putting in the struggling closer with a one-run lead.
But being racist and threatening the man’s family is beyond the foul line. It’s reprehensible and shameful. It’s no way to treat a man who’s been asked time and time again to stand up on that mound and do his best for his team and our city. Nobody deserves that, especially a Dodger who plays his heart out for Los Angeles.
“And these are the same “fans” who will be celebrating if Kenley closes out the final game of the World Series. People suck, man,” tweeted Joey Linn on Twitter, who was one of the first to point out the troubling comments.
