Adam Jones pretty much willed the Orioles to their first win in nearly a week on Thursday afternoon. He hustled out a single and then on the very next batter refused to be tagged by Houston 2B Jose Altuve to avoid a double play. He’s go on to score the O’s second run of the game.
Then, in the 8th, his monster home run – his first since May 11 – put the O’s up 3-2, a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Of course, Wei-Yin Chen, Darren O’Day, and Zach Britton are also to be commended for holding the Astros to two runs, including several Houdini acts late in the game with runners on and no or few outs.
Still, we’ve seen many a good pitching performance to go waste lately, so it was great to see Jones step up and make some offense happen.
What led to Jones’ break out? Perhaps he was already in a good mood due to these pre-game hijinks he pulled on the Astros’ mascot, Orbit.
If a pie flies, you have to win that day. Just Adam’s rules.
