How is Adam Jones becoming a centerpiece of the Orioles game play?
Bats bail out Berken as Orioles win Jones’ fifth-inning blast, one of three homers, puts team up Call it a Baltimore bailout. Rookie Jason Berken trailed for almost all of his big league debut Tuesday night, only to emerge with the win after he’d done his heaviest lifting. Berken escaped a bases-loaded jam in the fifth inning and watched as Adam Jones hit a game-changing home run that lifted the Orioles to a 7-2 win over the Blue Jays. “It was pretty special,” said Berken. “As soon as he hit that ball, I knew it was out. And it kind of changes your whole outlook on the outing. I was happy with the way things went. The only thing that was frustrating is my pitch count was a little high. I’d like to pitch deeper in the game, but for my first outing, I can’t complain.” And neither can the Orioles, who have already switched out three members of their Opening Day rotation. Berken is the fourth rookie starter Baltimore has sent to the hill this season, along with Brad Bergesen, Alfredo Simon
He plays in a division in which young center fielders have made a practice of using the postseason as their coming-out party. Boston’s Jacoby Ellsbury batted a team-high .438 and won free tacos for America with his stolen base in the 2007 World Series. Tampa Bay’s B.J. Upton hit seven home runs and drove in 15 runs in 11 games of the 2008 AL playoffs, then stole four bases in the World Series. Because the Baltimore Orioles remain “a work in progress,” as he terms it, Adam Jones may have to bide his time before he can strut his stuff in October. But let there be no mistake: The Orioles’ center fielder, who at 23 is younger than Ellsbury and Upton, is not afraid of the company he is keeping in the American League East. Jones, who came to the Orioles from the Seattle Mariners in the Erik Bedard deal prior to the 2008 season, is already showing signs of a breakout season in his second full year in Baltimore. Installed in the second spot in the batting order between All-Star second baseman
