{"id":327167,"date":"2026-08-22T02:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T02:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/327167\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T02:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T02:56:08","slug":"spencer-jones-powers-win-over-blue-jays-as-yankees-gain-ground-in-al-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/327167\/","title":{"rendered":"Spencer Jones powers win over Blue Jays as Yankees gain ground in AL East"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spencer Jones<\/a>\u2019 prodigious power is starting to play at the big-league level.<\/p>\n

The Yankees<\/a>\u2019 rookie slugger delivered a towering two-run moonshot during Friday night\u2019s 3-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in the Bronx, marking his second consecutive game with a home run.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s right-field foul pole.<\/p>\n

The 385-foot drive landed in the second deck and was upheld by an umpire review, giving the Yankees a 2-0 lead.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was maybe the highest one I\u2019ve ever hit,\u201d Jones said of his sky-high homer, which had a 43-degree launch angle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know [if it was fair]. I was just standing there watching it. I saw it go up and around the foul pole, and I was hoping the umpire saw the same thing as me.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was Jones\u2019 seventh home run in his 55th major-league game, with the bulk of those blasts coming over the past four weeks.<\/p>\n

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 RBI.<\/p>\n

All five of those home runs have come in Jones\u2019 last 21 games \u2014 after he batted .213 and totaled two homers over his first 34 MLB appearances.<\/p>\n

Overall, Jones is hitting .229 with 21 RBI and a .731 OPS since making his MLB debut on May 8.<\/p>\n

\u201c[He\u2019s] making some good adjustments,\u201d manager Aaron Boone said. \u201cI think he has a feel or an idea of what an opposing pitcher\u2019s strengths and weaknesses are and how they might try to attack him, and he\u2019s doing a good job of that. He\u2019s been adaptable, is the way I put it. The experience he\u2019s gaining, I feel like, is very valuable, and he\u2019s applying it well every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

A first-round pick in 2022, Jones boasts 86 home runs and an .851 OPS over 434 minor-league games \u2014 mighty production that solidified the 25-year-old outfielder as one of the Yankees\u2019 top prospects.<\/p>\n

However, the 6-7 Jones\u2019 low contact and high strikeout rates in the minors delayed his path to the majors.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 33.6% strikeout rate is the highest.<\/p>\n

But Jones\u2019 contributions are becoming more and more frequent.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s 1-for-3 performance extended Jones\u2019 hitting streak to four games \u2014 matching a career-high \u2014 and marked the first time he has homered in back-to-back games.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s after Jones went 3-for-4 in Thursday night\u2019s 6-1 win in Baltimore, afterward crediting a mechanical adjustment for his recent surge.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just some stuff where I was getting started late,\u201d Jones said Thursday. \u201cMy 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s home run provided enough offense for Yankees ace Cam Schlittler, who held the Blue Jays to one run over six innings, despite issuing three walks and six hits with four strikeouts.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s Dylan Cease (2.42 ERA, 201 strikeouts in 137.2 innings), who is set to start Saturday afternoon in the Bronx.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe hits the ball hard. He hit it high, too,\u201d Schlittler said after Jones\u2019 homer. \u201cI couldn\u2019t really tell if it was fair or foul, but obviously it was fair. It\u2019s a good feeling to go out there, have that run support, and go out there and try to put zeroes on the board.\u201d<\/p>\n

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)<\/a> on the injured list.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But as it stands now, utilityman Max Schuemann \u2014 whom the Yankees recalled Friday when third baseman Ryan McMahon (thumb sprain) landed on the IL \u2014 appears more likely than Jones to be optioned to Triple-A once Bellinger is ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you want to do as a player is to be on a team that\u2019s competing, and then to help the team win games in any way possible,\u201d Jones said. \u201cYou\u2019re just having the opportunity to, and then on nights like tonight where I\u2019m able to help the team win, it\u2019s huge.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spencer Jones\u2019 prodigious power is starting to play at the big-league level. The Yankees\u2019 rookie slugger delivered a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[68632,46891,128,32358,20,9,24,63,36575,44865,129,131,130,16301],"class_list":["post-327167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-al-east","tag-blue-jays","tag-bronx","tag-cam-schlittler","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-rays","tag-spencer-jones","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news","tag-yankees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}