Dodgers' Jansen thought season was over after heart scare
With his team in the midst of a key series at Coors Field against the Colorado Rockies, Los Angeles Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen opened up about the heart ailment that prevented him from making the trip to the Mile High City.
"I wasn't scared. I knew exactly what it was," Jansen told Ramona Shelburne of ESPN regarding the irregular heartbeat that had him hospitalized during an early August series in Colorado. "I was pissed. I thought my season was over. I'm like, man, f--- this. Not again. We're trying to go back to the World Series. I have a chance to win another Trevor Hoffman award. Man!"
Jansen, 30, went through the same health problem in 2011 and 2012 during visits to Denver.
"I tried everything to get it back into rhythm for like 15, 20 minutes. And then I'm finally like, all right, let's just call 911," Jansen said. "I remember being annoyed in the ambulance too. It was driving too slow. I just wanted to get to the ER so they could fix it."
Once at the hospital, Shelburne explains, doctors used electrical shocks to get his heart back into its normal rhythm, then prescribed blood thinners, rest, and other heart medication.
Now, in hindsight, Jansen blames the meds for his underwhelming return from the disabled list. "Normally if I give up a home run, I'm really pissed," he explained. "I gave up four, and I felt nothing. It was like I had no emotion."
He also conceded that, if his team weren't in the midst of a key pennant race, he would have elected to have a second cardiac ablation surgery to repair the electrical issue that originally caused the abnormality.
After the Dodgers pulled off a 4-2 victory against the Rockies with Kenta Maeda recording the save, Los Angeles moved to within a half game of first-place, with the Arizona Diamondbacks one game behind them. If the season were to end today though, the Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals would play in the NL wild-card game, leaving the NL West with one playoff spot.
Over 62 1/3 innings this year, Jansen has authored a 2.89 ERA and 3.68 FIP in an uncharacteristically down year where both his strikeout rate and walk rate have trended in the wrong direction. His 34 saves rank second in the Senior Circuit behind Rockies reliever Wade Davis.