Kenley Jansen had already nailed down a save for the Tigers on Saturday. But his real battle came later that night, watching his native Curacao hold Ecuador to a draw in the World Cup. He couldn’t shut it down.
“I was surprised, man. I didn’t believe it until it got to 80 minutes. I was like, ‘Oh shoot, we might get a point here.’ … I couldn’t go to sleep, because my adrenaline was so up,” Jansen told reporters, including MLB.com’s Jason Beck.
Curacao’s goalkeeper, Eloy Room, nearly broke a World Cup record with 15 saves in that game. The 0-0 tie gave Curacao a valuable point in group play, and for a tiny island nation of about 150,000 people, that’s a big deal. Jansen grew up there, and you can feel the pride in how he talked about the result.
The Tigers’ closer is still closing
Earlier that same day, Jansen recorded a save in Detroit’s win over the White Sox. He’s been climbing the all-time saves list this season, still throwing effectively at age 38. The Tigers are 32-44 and have been a letdown after last year’s playoff run, but Jansen isn’t the reason why. He’s been solid.
Trade rumors have followed the Tigers all season, mostly centered on starter Tarik Skubal. Plenty of teams would pay a heavy price for him. The front office hasn’t tipped its hand, but the whole league is waiting to see if they pull the trigger on something big.
One night, two different kinds of tension
Jansen’s night was a weird mix of professional routine and personal emotion. He did his job in a meaningless June game for a team going nowhere fast, then stayed up late sweating over a soccer match that actually mattered to him in a way baseball games can’t anymore. That’s the pull of the World Cup. It grabs guys who normally live and die on the diamond.
Curacao isn’t expected to advance far, if at all. But Saturday night, they earned something real. And Jansen, like thousands of others back home, couldn’t look away.
The Tigers finish their series with the White Sox on Sunday at 1:40 p.m. ET. Jansen will likely be available again. Whether he’ll have slept better by then is another question.
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