HBT: So much for Adam Jones' breakthrough season

Adam Jones hit 32 homers and scored 103 runs for the Orioles during his finest regular season to date. Which is pretty hard to believe giving how badly he bombed during the ALDS.

Jones went 2-for-23 against the Yankees and led the world in ugly at-bats. To go along with his six strikeouts, he had three one-pitch at-bats and seven two-pitch at-bats (one of which resulted in a hit). Both of his hits were singles. He never worked a walk. In fact, he hasn?t walked since Sept. 21.

On defense, Jones also had a big miscue in Wednesday?s 12-inning loss, giving the Yankees their first run of the game in the third when he misjudged Derek Jeter?s fly to center. Jones took two steps in before beginning to drift back on a ball that went over his head.

Of course, Jones hardly deserves all of the blame for Baltimore?s troubles scoring. The lineup was full of guys with lousy averages: Manny Machado came in at .125, J.J. Hardy .136, Matt Wieters .150, Mark Reynolds .158 and Chris Davis .200. The fact that the team was without Nick Markakis, whose hand was broken by a CC Sabathia pitch, and Brian Roberts finally ended up doing some damage. Nolan Reimold and Wilson Betemit probably could have helped, too.

But Jones was one of the lineup?s two All-Stars. The guy who signed the six-year, $85.5 million contract back in May. He didn?t even need to carry the load for the team; the pitching did that while holding the Yankees to nine runs over the final four games. He just needed to play like he did in the regular season, and he couldn?t.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/10/12/so-much-for-adam-jones-breakthrough-season/related/

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