Spencer Jones keeps giving the Yankees something to work with, and Willie Randolph liked what he saw Thursday night.
Jones went 3-for-4 with a home run and two runs scored as the Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles 6-1 to finish off a sweep. After the game on YES Network, Randolph zeroed in on the rookie’s ability to adapt in real time.
“He’s an intelligent young player, you can see him making adjustments on the fly,” Randolph said post-game on YES. “Once he starts finding out that he doesn’t have to pull the ball and you saw tonight, that was a bomb shot to left-center field. So he stays inside the ball, makes good contact and the ball just flies off his bat.
“Very impressed because for young players, if you can make adjustments on the fly, that means a lot.”
Jones’ three hits came against three different pitches - a curveball, a sinker and a changeup - and Jack Curry noted that he was “going up there and he’s figuring out a way against everything that the Orioles have tried to do to him.”
The performance continued a strong stretch in Jones’ second call-up. In 23 games, he now has four home runs and an OPS of over .700.
“I think as we’ve seen every version of Spencer Jones, we’ve seen a better version,” Curry said. “We’ve seen a more comfortable hitter.”
For the season, Jones is hitting .217 with 6 homers and 19 RBI and a .712 OPS. After the game, he told Meredith Marakovits that the work behind the scenes helped set up the night he had at the plate.
“Just some conversations I had earlier in the day, looking at film from the past couple days, some adjustments we wanted to make, and then got some pitches to hit,” Jones said. “And I’m glad I was able to help the team.”
When asked what those changes were, Jones said, “Just getting things going a little earlier. I was a little late on some of the stuff earlier in the week, and then just making sure that not too many thoughts going through [my head], just allowing myself to be in a position to swing.”
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