Toronto closer goes out on a high note

Janssen looks unlikely to return next season

• Casey Janssen pitched one last perfect ninth inning, but this was not a save opportunity. It was a rave opportunity, and the fans delivered.

The Blue Jays closer came in to pitch the final frame of the season, and likely the last of his Toronto career, with his team trailing Baltimore 1-0. It took him six pitches to retire the side. Before each one, he held his glove in front of his chin and rocked from one foot to the other and blew out a big breath, just as he has done thousands of times in his eight-season career.

His job done, he walked off the mound, head down as usual, until the cheers started. Then he looked up and saw the fans standing and clapping. He waited a moment or two, and then he waved and soaked it all in.

“Gibby [manager John Gibbons] talked to me before the game and he said, ‘We’re thinking about giving you the ninth inning so the fans can honour you,’ ” Janssen said after that 1-0 score held up and the Jays finished 83-79. “I was like, ‘Really, you think they’re going to honour me?’

“But I don’t know. This stuff ’s new to me. It’s tough. But I appreciate everything, the fans, the city. Everything has been great. I’m just grateful to finish the season healthy and go out on a nice note.”

He has seen many teammates leave town over the years.

“It doesn’t feel weird,” he said, “until it’s you.”

Janssen is a free agent for the first time, and he is 33, and he struggled for a stretch after he took sick during the all-star break. It is widely believed the Jays will look elsewhere for a closer. Before the game, general manager Alex Anthopoulos was asked about a closer for 2015 and did not mention Janssen’s name.

But since he became the closer in 2012, Janssen recorded 81 saves and a 2.94 ERA, and until that skid after the all-star break, he was as dependable as any closer in the majors.

For weeks he has been talking about his Toronto tenure in the past tense. An early sign of his imminent departure, he felt, came when Gibbons started using rookie Aaron Sanchez in two-inning save situations.

He was drafted in 2004, and came up as a starter in 2006. Eventually he moved to the bullpen and ultimately the closer’s job.

“I enjoyed my time here if it is coming to an end,” Janssen said. “I was grateful for the opportunity I got — got promoted, was a starter, then got the opportunity to close, and for that I’m forever grateful. I still just apologize to the fans and everyone that we couldn’t bring a playoff and a championship here because deep down inside that’s all I’ve wanted to do.”

It was also disappointing for Sunday’s starter, R.A. Dickey, who was brought here in a December 2012 trade amid visions of immin- ent championships. That was a fantasy. This season was an improvement over last — a winning record, at least, if barely — but after a topsyturvy six months, still no playoffs.

Dickey lamented that reality, but found some solace in an improved personal performance. His 14-13 record was identical to last year’s, but his ERA dropped from 4.21 to 3.71 and he allowed 26 homers compared to 35 last year.

Over six innings against the Orioles’ playoff-ready lineup, he gave up two hits. One was a Jonathan Schoop home run. He could not pitch much better than that, he acknowledged.

Asked how the team could do better, he said: “Consistency, in a word.”

Gibbons called the a team of extremes, to wit: a 21-9 record in May, 9-17 in August

Dickey posed the central rhetorical question: “How can we have the May we did in multiple months and how do we eliminate the August that we had?”

And, of course, he had no answer.

“As far as the culture of the clubhouse and the integers that make up the right equation, that’s for people above where I am,” he said. “I know I have some stuff to improve on. I’m going to look forward to doing that.”

Meanwhile, Janssen, Brandon Morrow and Colby Rasmus are as good as gone. Others will go too. Anthopoulos focused on “turnover” several times in his season-review session before the game.

Janssen, as classy as they come, will be missed on the field and in the clubhouse.

“Casey’s had a tremendous career here,” Gibbons said. “I’m not sure how that all plays out at the end, but he ought to feel proud. I think the city appreciated him.”