Adam Jones Surging, Davis and Pearce Struggling for Orioles
By Nate Wardle
Apr 14, 2015; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones (10) high fives teammates after beating the New York Yankees 4-3 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports
The Baltimore Orioles are back to .500 after a 4-3 win on Tuesday against the New York Yankees. It wasn’t an easy win, which is disappointing considering the start from Miguel Gonzalez.
Miguel set a career-high with 10 Ks, and pitched seven excellent innings. But, then the game went to the bullpen, and Kevin Gausman almost gave it up.
Gausman didn’t pitch awful, a few cheap hits and a terrible error by Alejandro De Aza did him in. But, Zach Britton came in, got four outs and closed it out.
Among the Orioles’ hitters, several players are doing well, especially compared to last year. Caleb Joseph and Jonathan Schoop are both very good defensively, but both are showing more at the plate this year, which bodes well for the team.
However, Adam Jones is scorching right now. He now has four home runs on the young season, and has 11 hits on the homestand. He had two RBIs on Tuesday, one on a home run, one on a sacrifice fly. Jones started the season slowly, but the heart and soul of the O’s team is working to carry the team right now.
Chris Davis and Steve Pearce, on the other hand, are slumping. And that may be an understatement.
Davis is 5-26 with 12 Ks so far. But, it goes deeper than that. Manny Machado is hitting worse than Davis. So is Pearce. But Davis looks completely lost at the plate. COMPLETELY LOST.
The strikeouts are usually with Davis flailing at a pitch outside the zone. The entire at-bat usually features Davis weakly fouling a ball off, taking a strike and then going down on a pitch outside the zone. And after striking out, Davis looks lost as he walks back to the dugout.
One has to wonder if everything is OK with Davis. He looked more like the 2013 Davis back in Spring Training, but at this point, that isn’t the case.
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What can the Orioles do? Give him a day off and let him work on his batting eye and stroke? That might work. Let him work through it? At this point that may not work.
Send him to AAA? That won’t work, he won’t clear waivers.
Maybe letting Davis DH is one way to get him thinking about a little less. But he also can contribute defensively. If that is the case, who replaces him?
The first, and one of the only options is Steve Pearce. But Pearce is struggling as well. Statistically, maybe even worse. Pearce is 5-for-31 with nine strikeouts. After the first two games in Tampa Bay, Pearce has just two hits.
Other options for first base, there aren’t many. Travis Snider might be able to play first base. Same goes for Ryan Lavarnway and Caleb Joseph.
However, with defense being so important, I think you roll with one of these two at first base while they both work through their struggles. Hopefully things can be figured out.