Jones leaves with illness; Davis sits
Reliever Hart optioned to Norfolk to make room for starter Hess
BOSTON — Orioles center fielder Adam Jones left Sunday’s 5-0 loss to the Boston Red Sox in the bottom of the seventh inning with an illness, manager Buck Showalter said after the game.
Jones started Sunday’s game and had a team-high three hits, recording singles in each of his first three at-bats, before being pulled after his fourth at-bat in the top of the seventh inning. Craig Gentry moved from left field to center and Jace Peterson entered the game in left.
Showalter said Jones attempted to play the entire game.
“He’s sick,” the manager said. “After the first inning, came in, not sure exactly. He fought through it. Hewas kidding, it kind of helped his approach. He wasn’t trying to do too much. That last at-bat, I thought he didn’t have any energy and that’s unusual for Adam. He was trying to play through it, which is not unusual for Adam, and just didn’t feel like weshould push that anymore. Sometimes, you have the first really hot day like that. Who knows?”
The Orioles played Sunday through light rain in the middle innings that increased in intensity later in the game, and temperatures rose about 30 degrees from the end of Saturday night’s game at Fenway Park.
“It might be something you ate, could be a lot of things,” Showalter said. “But he may have thrown up once. He started to feel better a little bit and then he’d go right back, so I didn’t like it. … I noticed him coming off the field after defense in the bottom of the first and I asked him. He said he just felt like he had a bad stomach, OK? For lack of a better … His stomach was all upset. For Adam, to say he had no energy, [that] should get your attention.”
Jones has played in all but two of the Orioles’ 47 games this season. He is hitting .334 (21-for-61) over his past 15 games. Adam Jones Slumping slugger Davis sits for series finale: Showalter offered several reasons he chose to sit first baseman Chris Davis for Sunday’s series finale at Fenway Park, but none were more convincing than the Orioles slugger being in a horrendous rut at the plate.
Davis has not had much success against Red Sox starter Eduardo Rodriguez, going just 5-for-27 with14 strikeouts against the Boston lefty. Showalter said he also wanted to give Gentry an opportunity to get his bat going against left-handed pitching, and that he wanted to shift Trey Mancini, dealing with a sore knee, out of left field and to first base.
But Davis is coming off a four-strikeout game in Saturday’s 6-3 loss to the Red Sox, and he’s struck out in his past six plate appearances dating to Friday’s game. He’s hitting .166 for the season, has just eight extra-base hits in 166 plate appearances, owns a .512 OPS, and is on pace for 231 strikeouts, which would be a single-season record. For the season, Davis is hitting .139 against left-handed pitching with 18 strikeouts in 40 plate appearances.
“If you knew all the things that went on every day from his perspective and the work and the things he’s trying to [do], I know he’s tried a few things and gotten a return on them,” Showalter said. “And then it doesn’t another day for a lot of reasons. Everybody’s got a reason, but I know it bothers Chris and he’s trying, but it’s just not happening. I think he’s got a pretty firm grip on what he’s not doing [and] he’s trying to get there.”
Showalter gave Davis two days off in late April — both times against left-handed starters — to give him what he called a “reset,” and Davis responded well initially, reaching base in seven of his next 15 plate appearances and driving in three runs over a four-game stretch.
But since then, Davis is hitting just .122 (6-for-49) with 24 strikeouts in 50 plate appearances. In the first three games of this weekend series in Boston — which included two starts against left-handers — Davis is 1-for-12 with eight strikeouts.
“Those [next] two or three days [after returning], I thought he had some good at-bats,” Showalter said. “He faced some good pitching last night, OK. You face good pitching here, period, and it didn’t happen. He wasn’t the only one, but I certainly understand the questions about him. It’s been tough to get that consistent feel for him, so to speak.”
Showalter said he believes Davis is feeling the weight of a club-record seven-year, $161 million contract.
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s part of it,” Showalter said. “I know that’s part of it. It’s something that Chris is trying to fight through.” Hart optioned to make room for Hess: The Orioles optioned left-hander Donnie Hart to Triple-A Norfolk before Sunday’s game to make room for right-hander David Hess, who was recalled to start Sunday’s game, but Hart received an strong review from Showalter before he went out.
In two brief stints with the big league club, Hart has begun to show the form he had in 2016, when he emerged as a valuable reliever. He’s allowed one earned run in 42⁄ innings over four outings, and most importantly, left-handed hitters are just 2-for-13 against him.
“That’s one of the things I told him today,” Showalter said. “Donnie’s kind of back to being the guy he was before it kind of got away from him a little bit last year.”