Power Ranger: Andruw Jones Delivers Three Homers As Rangers Pound Angels, Recapture First

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ANAHEIM, Calif. - Never let it be said that Andruw Jones doesn’t understand his role.

Upon scanning the lineup Wednesday night and seeing his name in it for the third straight game and the fifth in the last six, the guy who was signed as a part-timer leaned over and whispered with a smile: “You know, I’m playing entirely too much.”

Not if he keeps this up.

Jones homered on the first pitch he saw during the Rangers 8-1 throttling of Los Angeles, then homered in each of his next two at-bats as well to tie the club record for homers in a game.  He hit four homers in the series as the Rangers re-took sole possession of first place in the AL West. He’s hit five in his last four games. That is definitely not part-time pace.

“He swung the bat well against Tampa Bay,” manager Ron Washington said. “He’s swinging the bat very well right now. It doesn’t mean he’ll be in there [Friday]. He may or may not be. But he’s productive right now and I’m going to play him as much as I possibly can.”

Though his batting average remains a bland .250, Jones has hit 14 homers in 160 at-bats this season, or once every 11.4 times up. Though he falls about 60 plate appearances shy of qualifying for the league leaders, his pace would lead the AL ahead of Seattle’s Russell Branyan (12.21) and rank third in the majors behind Albert Pujols (9.26) and Raul Ibanez (11.36). As it is, Jones is on pace for 35 homers in a 400 at-bat season. With nearly 80 games remaining, there is plenty of time to get him 400 at-bats.

It should be noted that in the decade he was a healthy full-time player, Jones hit only .263 at the plate, but averaged 33 homers per year. While his batting average has fallen some, it appears his power abilities remain near what they were before last year’s injury-plagued nightmare with the Los Angeles Dodgers in which he hit .158 with three homers and appeared in just 75 games.

“This is what Andruw is capable of,” said 3B Michael Young, who was on base for Jones’ three-run first-inning blast. “There aren’t many people in the game who have more natural power than he does. If he plays every day, you are going to see basically the same Andruw Jones you’ve seen every year of his career with the exception of last year. You are talking about a guy who was on his way to being a first-ballot Hall o Famer. He’s still got a lot left in his tank. ”

For much of the season, Jones has been used as a DH only against left-handed pitching. Hank Blalock handled the DH duties against right-handers. Blalock, however, is now the Rangers’ full-time first baseman with Chris Davis in the minors. Until Davis comes back, it creates a spot another full-time spot in the lineup. Jones has grabbed it.

“One night doesn’t mean anything,” Jones said. “But when they keep you in there, you want to produce and you have to produce to stay in there. When they put me in the lineup, I will be ready to play. I’m not going to project numbers, but I’m going to do what I can to get the job done. My goal is to be consistent. I had a lot of years in a row where I hit 25 homers. That was consistency. I just want to be consistent.”

Perhaps due to the increased playing time, Jones had great timing on fastballs Wednesday. Ervin Santana tried to throw one by him on the first pitch he threw him. Jones blasted it over the wall in left center. Two innings later, Santana came back with another fastball eight pitches into the at-bat; Jones drove it just inside the foul pole in left. And in the fifth, after Santana had been chased, he hit a laser beam homer on yet another fastball, this one from Rich Thompson, into the Angels bullpen.

That gave him at least two more chances to tie Major League Baseball’s record for homers in a game. In the sixth, he got still more fastballs, this time from Kevin Jepsen, who muscled a 94 mph pitch up and in for a powerful swing-and-miss. Jepsen came back with yet another fastball and Jones popped it up into short right center. In the ninth, he struck out swinging against Jason Bulger.

“Yeah, I was thinking about it,” Jones admitted. “Four home runs is something unbelievable. Anybody who gets to three homers and then tells you they aren’t thinking about a fourth is lying. I was thinking about it. I was thinking about it a little too much.”

That’s OK. Based on the way the Rangers are using him right now, it doesn’t seem like Jones will have too much time to sit around and ruminate on anything. Full-timers don’t have a whole lot of time for that kind of stuff.