With 50 strikeouts and no walks, Kenley Jansen breaking records ... and advanced stats

This may be a game in early May against the San Diego Padres, but it’s one that Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts wants. So in the eighth inning, after Clayton Kershaw gives up a home run and the Padres load the bases with two outs, Roberts calls on his closer, Kenley Jansen, to pitch to slugging rookie Hunter Renfroe.

Jansen gets ahead 1-2 and tries to come inside. Too far. He tries the same thing with his next pitch. Again, it’s too far inside.

On 3-2, Jansen has a different approach. He raises his left leg, holds his glove out, hooks his arm and fires straight at his target. It’s a 91 mph cutter, one that catcher Yasmani Grandal makes appear a hair higher than where it appears on charts: at the bottom of the strike zone on the black. Umpire Toby Basner rings up strike three. Renfroe bends over in disbelief. Grandal pumps his fist. Jansen, meanwhile, is as cool as can be as he comes off the mound, undaunted by the moment.

This is the Kenley Jansen experience. It’s not high-volume or flashy. It requires cooperation and perfection from multiple parties. And it’s amazing to watch when it’s going as well as it is.

Jansen, a 29-year-old native of Curacao, is baseball’s king of command. So far this season, he has 50 strikeouts with no walks. The Elias Sports Bureau reports that’s by far the most strikeouts for a pitcher before he issued his first walk. The previous record was only 35 by Adam Wainwright in 2013.

"It’s an awesome thing," Jansen said. "When I’m out there, I don’t think about it. I think about attacking hitters and my game plan. My game plan will never change."

How does he do it?

Jansen’s plan is about one pitch. He throws his cutter 89 percent of the time. It’s not a Mariano Rivera cutter; the break is slight, not sharp. The pitch isn't intended to jam a lefty or hook away from a righty like Rivera’s. And this one comes to the plate anywhere from 91 to 95 mph.

Jansen’s delivery is a lunge and then a quick uncoil. The pitch appears to be coming right over the middle of the plate. And then it’s not. It can drop down, appear to rise, and then jerk left or right ever so slightly. In short, it does what Jansen wants.

“I know how to manipulate it,” Jansen said. “Sometimes it cuts. Sometimes it stays straight. Sometimes it backs up. When I want a shorter [cut], I know what to do. That’s just experience and pitching more. You’ve got to figure out yourself. That what I’m doing.”

Jansen has it figured out and then some. He has a 0.91 ERA in 29 2/3 innings this season. He has basically broken the fielding independent pitching stat that estimates what an ERA should be based on strikeouts, walks and home runs. That number was in the negative for Jansen for much of the season. It’s currently 0.30. He has allowed no runs and four hits in 12 2/3 innings in his past dozen games, with 18 strikeouts.

“He is truly an exception because of his cutter and the ability to place it so precisely,” a longtime major league scout said. “Watch video and see how often he hits the mitt. If it’s way off, it’s probably by design due to the opposition stealing location.”

Jansen notes that though the pitch works for him, that won’t necessarily be true for those who aspire to be him.

“It’s a natural pitch,” Jansen said. “You might not have it.”

Catch him if you can

It must seem like eons ago that Jansen was catching in the minor leagues. He caught an 18-year-old Kershaw recording a save in the Gulf Coast League in 2006. He was noted then for his arm (37 percent caught stealing rate), and then his bat (.229 batting average in 840 at-bats). Now, eight years removed from converting to pitching, he is to relievers what Kershaw has been for many years to starters.

“This kid was such a quality throwing catcher, with the traditional catcher’s arm action, compact and quick with no wasted motion and exceptional athleticism to allow well above-average accuracy from 127 feet,” the scout said. “That makes locating quality pitches from 60 feet, 6 inches a piece of cake.

“I love that his natural plane and direction is to work from the belt line to the letters on both sides of the plate. It is just nasty to try to catch up and square him up, as he is uniquely deceptive with his delivery on top of a simple approach. I love the guy’s confidence, mound presence, poise and concentration.”

Grandal, a pitch-framing master, is as good at his work as Jansen is at his. That strikeout of Renfroe is as much Grandal’s as it is Jansen’s. Jansen has a 5-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio with all of the other catchers he has worked with in his career. With Grandal, that ratio is just over 11-1.

“I appreciate how he keeps his head in the game when he has a down night, how he steps up and makes adjustments,” Jansen said. “That shows everybody how great he is. He adjusts to me. We’re always on the same page. He knows what I’m capable of doing. He makes it so much easier for me.”

Former Chicago Cubs catcher and current ESPN baseball analyst David Ross has an appreciation of Jansen as both a catcher and a hitter. He has faced Jansen only once, but he remembers the experience well. He saw four pitches. Or rather, Jansen threw four pitches, all strikes. Ross didn’t see much of anything. He struck out.

“The ball disappears because he’s jumping at you,” Ross said. “You know he’s throwing you a cutter. You know it’s gonna be middle-middle or middle-away. It just explodes out of his hands. It’s hard to size up the cut. You know it’s coming, and it’s hard to hit. He hides it. He’s jumping at you. When they master the cutter, it’s such a hard pitch. [Jansen] can throw it to both sides of the plate, up and down.”

Ross summed up the experience of facing Jansen in one word: “Defeating.”

Fearless

While Jansen has mastered the physical aspect of pitching, he seems to have a great feel for the mental aspect, too. Watch him on the mound -- he doesn’t get flustered. Opponents are 5-for-53 with 25 strikeouts against him this season in high-leverage situations (those most important to winning and losing). When he walks off the mound, you’d never know he got through something so difficult so easily.

And he won't change what he’s doing.

“The league knows who I am,” Jansen said. “I attack all the time. I’m not afraid to walk anyone.”