The Orioles defeated the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Monday night in a rain-soaked affair that included a two hour-plus rain delay. It’s a bit ridiculous that Crew Chief Joe West decided to resume the game following stoppage with the Orioles leading 4-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning – sheets of rain fell for hours at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, and there was a small lake in the right field corner at one point – but the O’s held on for the 4-3 win as midnight approached in Baltimore.
Had the game been declared official at the time of stoppage, the Orioles would have won anyway, in large thanks to a two-run home run off the bat of Adam Jones.
Jones, after wiping his bat dry, took a hanging change-up from Angels’ ace Jered Weaver deep into the left field stands to put the Birds up 2-1. It was a nice AB by Jones, who just missed Weaver’s first offering – also a high change-up – before jumping all over the second pitch he saw.
Adam has now homered in consecutive games for the second time this season (he homered in all four games in Toronto last month) and looks to hopefully be getting hot again after a bit of a slump.
Following his four-dingers-in-four-games performance at Rogers Centre, Jones went six for his next 21 (.285) with a double and another home run to finish May with an outstanding .311/.344/.546 slash line for the month. His .890 OPS for May was slightly better than his .873 in April (.327/.350/.522), and was his highest in any month since his ridiculous .985 last May. His seven home runs in the Month was also his most since the same time a year ago.
June has been a bit of a struggle for the slugging center fielder though. AJ started the month just four for his first 28 (.143), with only one extra-base hit (a double on June 6) and one RBI to go along with eight strikeouts. Over the last two games however, Jones is 4/8 with two home runs (including the longest of his career Sunday in Tampa) and five RBI. For the month, Adam is at .222/.216/.444. The .661 OPS would be his lowest for any month since April 2010, so I don’t expect it to hold.
Still, Adam experienced a similar dip in his numbers last June, when he hit .272/.299/.427 with just three HR and seven RBI after his monster May before picking it up again in July.
Of course, all of the “super small sample size” disclaimers apply here. We have a pretty good idea of what we get with Adam Jones at the dish at this point in time – he’s not going to walk much (0 this month so far), but the guy can absolutely rake when he’s on. However, that’s not to say that it wouldn’t be nice to see AJ put the brakes on his June skid early this time around, instead of flailing for the entire month like he did a year ago.
Watching Jones earlier in the month, I got some flashbacks to last June and that .299 OBP. It’s been a relief to watch him hit the ball with some authority again these past couple games. Here’s hoping he keeps it up.
Now, speaking of slumps, about Chris Davis…