Tonight's terrible 9th inning from the offense!

[O's84]

In fact, I now recall that he struck out THREE times. The pitch between the two strike-outs was strike three and called a ball.

I actually think the pitch was a ball but it was close enough to be called.

[eddie83]

And of course the book is out on most of our hitters so we don't get many first pitch strikes anymore.

Baseball is a game of adjustments and most of the pitchers in the league know that certain guys in our lineup are going to chase bad pitches. Adam is going to go after low and/or away breaking stuff over and over again. So that's what he's going to get.

Our guys are going to have to adjust and start laying off that stuff.

Jones seems to be the worst in that regard. I almost think sometimes he is trying to hard or thinks everything rests on him. He has Davis and Cruz behind him.

[orioleslist]

I have given up on Jones taking his game to the next level. The talent is there' date=' unfortunately the ability to make adjustments isn't.[/quote']

Couldn't agree more. The sad thing is if it turns out that AJ's best years are behind him (and I am absolutely convinced that they are given his inability to adjust to the way he's being pitched these days), he'll be remembered more for his idiotic swings at breaking balls in the dirt than anything else.

The talent is there, no doubt about it, but his baseball IQ has to be in negative territory.

I know this will sound harsh, but AJ is a dumb baseball player (*).

(*) And before people start flaming me, no, this isn't a personal attack. I am absolutely not judging AJ the person. He might be a very intelligent individual--a smart baseball player he isn't.

[BarclaySouthway]

I actually think the pitch was a ball but it was close enough to be called.

It was a strike on pitch track. That's a fairly off-center center field camera there in KC.

[Uli2001]

Jones seems to be the worst in that regard. I almost think sometimes he is trying to hard or thinks everything rests on him. He has Davis and Cruz behind him.

He thinks of himself as the Orioles' Ray Lewis. I think he said it somewhere. He is the leader, the star. I think he has had the bad luck of having managers in his career that encouraged this kind of spooled attitude. Including Buck Showalter.

[O's84]

It was a strike on pitch track. That's a fairly off-center center field camera there in KC.

Fair enough.

[Guest]

I just didn't get Clevenger leading off the 9th. Rather have Pearce lead off.

[eddie83]

I just didn't get Clevenger leading off the 9th. Rather have Pearce lead off.

Clevenger handles the bat very well, plus a lefty vs a RHP. Pearce isn't as good vs RHP. Made sense to me.

[Guest]

Please explain the logic behind that move. There isn't any.

Clevenger has had about 258 ML at bats vs one of the best closer in the game. Sorry that's not a good match up for us.

[Aristotelian]

I did have the same thought about pinch running Lough for Markakis. Even if you don't steal a base there you are in better position to score. Imagine if AJ had hit a shallow sac fly and Nick had gotten tagged out in a bang bang play.

That said, this loss is all on Adam. 1st and 3rd with one out, you have to make contact. If you can't hit the guy then try a suicide squeeze for crying out loud. Manny and Nick put us in a great position to tie but AJ let us down.

[Aristotelian]

As bad as Adam Jones looked, making contact, even on a bunt, is not as easy as you make it sound, against Holland. He struck out Clevenger and Cruz as well.

Good point, but I can give them a pass. With nobody out and no baserunners, Clevenger is swinging to get a base hit. Same thing with Cruz with 2 out. AJ just needs to put the ball in play and it's a tie game. I am sick of the opposing teams announcers laughing at our star player because they know he will swing at anything in any situation.

[olehippi]

This is hyperbole. Obviously Holland wouldn't have thrown exactly the same pitches in the same location if the count were different.

It's not hyperbole. In fact, that is exactly the point. Holland likely would have thrown the first two pitches anyway - a slider down and a fastball away, both out of the strike zone, by the way, but Jones swung at them. It should have been a 2-0 count instead of 0-2. If so THEN yes, Holland definitely would have changed his pitching pattern and would have been forced to throw Jones a maybe hittable fastball. Instead, Jones was dead meat after the first two pitches and everyone watching the game knew it.

Don't know if it will work, but here is the Gameday view. Back it up to Jones' AB.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/mini.jsp?gid=2014_05_17_balmlb_kcamlb_1

[UpstateNYfan]

Actually, the ninth inning offense was better than innings 1-8. AJ's at bat was noticeably the worse and totally not unusual for him. My problem with most of the guys is they came up hacking from the get go. Is there ever a mandate to take a strike? Without going back it seems like all the batters would have been ahead 1-0 and a couple 2-0 and been in fastball counts. I generally have little problem with batters being aggressive, but sometimes you got to give a strike away.

[Roll Tide]

Actually, the ninth inning offense was better than innings 1-8. AJ's at bat was noticeably the worse and totally not unusual for him. My problem with most of the guys is they came up hacking from the get go. Is there ever a mandate to take a strike? Without going back it seems like all the batters would have been ahead 1-0 and a couple 2-0 and been in fastball counts. I generally have little problem with batters being aggressive, but sometimes you got to give a strike away.

The Orioles couldve tied and won the game easily last night by making the pitcher throw strikes. Counting the extra strike that Jones received did the pitcher even throw one?

[SeaBird]

Machado swung on the 3-0 count because he wanted to be the team hero. Jones swinging in the dirt has earned himself a new nickname: Adam "The Weed Whacker" Jones.