Thanks to Adam Jones’ two-run home run in the top of the ninth inning on Sunday (and Jim Johnson nailing down the save) the Orioles avoided a weekend sweep at the hands of their rivals to the north, the New York Yankees, via a 2-1 victory.
The struggles of the offense this month have been well documented (despite Sunday’s win they still aren’t good) and have contributed to the team’s 2-4 mark thus far. So far in July the Orioles have scored the second fewest runs (16), recorded the fewest hits (40), and have the lowest batting average (.205), on-base percentage (.250), and slugging percentage (.338) in the American League. But with one swing of the bat Adam Jones helped turn the attention away from July’s tough start and towards a home stand, which begins Monday, that could serve the team well.
A closer look into the matchup with Mariano Rivera might tell us why AJ was able to succeed.
Based on data from Fan Graphs, in 2013 Rivera had used his famous cut fastball 90.2% of the time coming into Sunday and his four-seam fastball just 9.8%.
Courtesy of Brooks Baseball, here is how Adam has performed against various pitches this season.
A quick look and Jones’ .320 average and .610 slugging versus four-seam fastballs as well as the .389/.611 respectively against cutters jumps out.
According to MLB.com, Rivera threw 25 pitches on Sunday (including the four intentional balls to J.J. Hardy). Of the remaining 21, 16 were cutters and five were four-seam fastballs. He threw at least one cutter to each hitter he faced (not including Hardy) except for one, Adam Jones.
This was the result.
For Rivera, he was beaten on his second-best pitch. Adam Jones, on the other hand, capitalized on a fastball as he has done on numerous occasions in 2013.
Much has been made in recent weeks of Adam Jones’ tendency to swing at too many pitches and not take enough. That being said, he’s one of four All-Stars on the Orioles’ roster and Sunday Adam came through against the best closer in Major League Baseball history when his team needed him to. There’s something to be said for that.
When asked about the home run following the game, Jones said, “It’s off the greatest closer in the history of the game. I’ll always remember it.” Let’s hope, in addition to being a great memory for Adam, it gets him out of the recent funk he’s been in at the plate.
