Baltimore Orioles: Adam Jones Reaps Rewards of Grinding

Baltimore Orioles center fielder Adam Jones broke out of an offensive funk to lead the O’s to a 5-3 victory over the Minnesota Twins Tuesday evening.

Unlike the early portion of the 2015 season, the first 30 games of the current year for Adam Jones have been difficult in many ways. There have been some nagging injury issues, but also some unusually low production numbers for the prolific hitter.

Jones came into Tuesday evening’s game in Minnesota batting just .200 with one home run and nine RBIs in the 26 games he played. The first 26 games of 2015 had him batting .367 with five homers and 21 RBIs.

Any Orioles fan who listens to Adam Jones interviews or reads his quotes in columns knows that his favorite word is “grind” or “grinding” … saying things like “just gotta keep grinding.”  I don’t think he could do an interview without saying it. He had it in a tweet Saturday evening …

But Jones followed a Machado homer with a monster blast of his own at Minnesota, giving the Orioles a 3-1 lead. Later with two outs in the top of the ninth inning and the score tied at 3-3, Jones worked a long at-bat and got a pitch up in the zone to drive in two runs as the ultimate game-winners in the O’s 5-3 victory.

My colleague Ben Palmer wrote an article just yesterday in raising the question about Jones as to if it is time for Orioles fans to panic. He said …

So is it time to panic about Adam Jones? Not at all, things will absolutely get better. He’ll probably hit about .270 from this point on, with another 20-23 home runs, and we’ll all see the Adam Jones we’ve gotten used to here in Baltimore.

I’m not going to lie. I was thinking of writing essentially the same article, though I would have answered the question that it may well be time to panic!  I do worry that some decline is setting in. But all that is necessary to get an O’s player out of a slump is for me to write a critical article, and the next day they will be the game-changer in a positive way. I’m a regular slump buster.

We all certainly hope that Jones will find his historic stroke, even if he does chase an inordinate number of balls that break outside and in the dirt. He laid off such pitches in the ninth inning, and it paid off for him and for the Birds.

Next: Corner Outfielders Looking Good for O's

Actually, I thought the most impressive at-bat of the game was that of Joey Rickard in that ninth inning with two outs and the bases empty. In an eight-pitch at-bat, he fouled off four pitches while also taking some close balls with a very good and disciplined eye. He then jumped on a ball and hit it on a line to the left-field wall for a double. This set up an intentional walk to Machado, a wild pitch to move them both over one base, and the opportunity for Jones to drive them home.

Here are the prorated home run and strikeout numbers for the Orioles this year …

This was a good win for the Orioles, the type that winning teams accomplish. Hopefully there is a game this afternoon, and hopefully the Birds can continue to turn the tables on the Twins from having lost all seven games to them a year ago.