Spencer Jones powers win over Blue Jays as Yankees gain ground in AL East
· Yahoo Sports
NEW YORK — Spencer Jones’ prodigious power is starting to play at the big league level.
The Yankees’ rookie slugger delivered a towering two-run moonshot during Friday night’s 3-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in the Bronx, marking his second consecutive game with a home run.
Visit asg-reflektory.pl for more information.
In the bottom of the second, the lefty-swinging Jones turned on an 89-mph cutter from Spencer Arrighetti and cranked it high above Yankee Stadium’s right-field foul pole.
The 385-foot drive landed in the second deck and was upheld by an umpire review, giving the Yankees a 2-0 lead.
That advantage held up as the Yankees (73-55) earned their fifth consecutive win and moved within three games of the American League East-leading Tampa Bay Rays, who lost Friday in Baltimore.
It was Jones’ seventh home run in his 55th major league game, with the bulk of those blasts coming over the past four weeks.
Since he was recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on July 26 for his third extended stint in the majors, Jones is batting .234 with five home runs and 14 RBIs.
All five of those home runs have come in Jones’ last 21 games — after he batted .213 and totaled two homers over his first 34 MLB appearances.
Overall, Jones is hitting .229 with 21 RBIs and a .731 OPS since making his MLB debut on May 8.
“He keeps getting better as a player, and I think he’s shown a good aptitude for making adjustments,” manager Aaron Boone said ahead of Friday’s game.
“I think this has been a really strong year for him in his development as a player. I still don’t even view him as a finished product, but he’s come up here and more than held his own.”
A first-round pick in 2022, Jones boasts 86 home runs and an .851 OPS over 434 minor league games — mighty production that solidified the 25-year-old outfielder as one of the Yankees’ top prospects.
However, the 6-7 Jones’ low contact and high strikeout rates in the minors delayed his path to the majors.
Jones has continued to K at the MLB level, entering Friday with a 36.5% strikeout rate, which would be the highest among MLB batters if he qualified with enough at-bats. Among qualified hitters, Kyle Schwarber’s 33.6% strikeout rate is the highest.
But Jones’ contributions are becoming more and more frequent.
Friday’s 1-for-3 performance extended Jones’ hitting streak to four games — matching a career high — and marked the first time he has homered in back-to-back games.
Jones went 3 for 4 in Thursday night’s 6-1 win in Baltimore, afterward crediting a mechanical adjustment for his recent hot streak.
“It was just some stuff where I was getting started late,” Jones said. “My hands were kind of dropping a little bit, so just kind of focusing on tightening up those turns and letting myself see the ball as long as possible.”
Jones’ latest home run provided enough offense for 25-year-old Yankees ace Cam Schlittler, who held the Blue Jays to one run over six innings Friday, despite issuing three walks and six hits with four strikeouts.
Schlittler, 25, improved to 11-6 with a 2.16 ERA in 27 starts. The right-hander is deadlocked in an AL Cy Young Award race with Toronto’s Dylan Cease (2.42 ERA, 201 strikeouts in 137 2/3 innings), who is set to start Saturday afternoon in the Bronx.
Jones started in right field again on Friday and has benefited from regular playing time with outfielders Aaron Judge (right rib fracture) and Cody Bellinger (hamstring) on the injured list.
Bellinger began a rehab assignment Thursday and could be activated as soon as Sunday, which would require the Yankees to make a corresponding roster move.
But as it stands now, utilityman Max Schuemann — whom the Yankees recalled Friday when third baseman Ryan McMahon (thumb sprain) landed on the IL — appears more likely than Jones to be optioned to Triple-A once Bellinger is ready.
“I think he’s certainly gotten better with the invaluable experience of playing up here,” Boone said of Jones.
Jones shared a similar sentiment Thursday.
“I think it’s been huge, just as far as maybe not having a great couple of games, and then knowing I’m going to be in the lineup the next day, is nice,” Jones said. “And then being able to make adjustments on the fly and have the freedom to do it. It’s been a good run.”