Jansen loses game, but Roberts still happy to have his closer back

The velocity was good, Kenley Jansen’s fastball touching 93 mph on the Dodger Stadium radar gun, and the closer’s arm action and release point looked fine in his return from the disabled list Monday night.

It was pitch execution and probably a little too much rust and adrenaline that doomed the big right-hander, who gave up home runs to Jedd Gyorko and Matt Carpenter to lead off the ninth inning of a 5-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals that took 4 hours, 10 minutes to complete.

“I thought he threw the ball well,” manager Dave Roberts said of Jansen, who was sidelined for 11 days because of symptoms related to an irregular heartbeat. “The pitch to Gyorko was middle-middle, the pitch to Carpenter didn’t really have any characteristics of a [cut-fastball], and they put two good swings on them.”

Jansen greeted reporters who approached him after the game with, “What can I say? I’m not an excuse guy,” but it was clear he did not feel comfortable in his first appearance since Aug. 7.

“Everything was flat for me,” Jansen said. “I was amped up to be back, you try hard, and everything flattens out. The more I kept throwing, facing hitters, I felt better, but the first two hitters, I wasn’t in my comfort zone.

“I was battling more with myself than with them. I finally settled down, and that’s a good thing. I’ll just move forward from this one and be ready for tomorrow.”

After the two home runs, Jansen got Jose Martinez to line out to left field. He struck out Paul DeJong, gave up a single to Marcell Ozuna and struck out Tyler O’Neill to end the inning.

Jansen’s finish, along with two scoreless relief innings from Kenta Maeda and Pedro Baez, gave Roberts some hope that a bullpen that struggled in Jansen’s absence will find its footing in time for the Dodgers, who are 2½ games behind National League West co-leaders Arizona and Colorado, to make a playoff push.

“Kenley is the best in the game, and we have a lot of good arms in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings,” Roberts said. “They’re going to continue to get opportunities, and we’re going to continue to get leads, and now it’s up to us to finish them.”

Maeda, who reluctantly moved from the rotation to the bullpen last week with the Dodgers hoping the right-hander can reprise his dominant 2017 postseason relief form, struck out four of the six batters he faced in the seventh and eighth innings.

“I thought he was really good,” Roberts said. “To give us two big innings in leverage and give us a chance to win it … he was very sharp. There were some 93-mph [fastballs], his slider was sharp, and the split-changeup was good. That’s the role we see him now, and he provides huge value.”

Baez, the much-maligned, hard-throwing right-hander, walked the first batter he faced with the bases loaded and no outs in the fifth inning to force in a run, but he retired the next six batters, three by strikeout, to give the Dodgers a chance to mount their comeback from a 3-0 deficit.

“He came in and saved the bullpen,” Roberts said. “He kept us in the ballgame.”

The bullpen lost another hard-throwing right-hander when J.T. Chargois left the game because of neck and arm discomfort after facing one batter in the fifth inning. Chargois will undergo an MRI test on Tuesday and is expected to go on the disabled list.

“He said there was some tingling,” Roberts said, “so we had to get him out.”

Roberts had no regrets about putting Jansen back in, and he said he will not hesitate to go his closer if the situation calls for it again Tuesday night.

“He’s the best we have right there in that spot,” Roberts said. “He was active, he was chomping at the bit to get out there. He’s a guy we trust. It just didn’t work out tonight.

“No one feels worse than Kenley right now, but I applaud him for wanting to get back in there and take the baseball. It just didn’t work out tonight. But I expect us to have that same opportunity tomorrow and to run him back out there.”

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

@MikeDiGiovanna