SAN DIEGO — Spencer Jones spent years imagining a major league game at Petco Park. The reality has arrived with a sharper edge than nostalgia.
In two nights against the San Diego Padres, the rookie has produced in late-game pressure, against a veteran left-hander and in front of family and friends from nearby Encinitas. Saturday, he gave the Yankees another reason to keep him in the lineup.
Jones went 2-for-4 with an RBI double in the Yankees’ 5-1 win, starting a four-run second inning that knocked San Diego starter Robbie Ray off course. His two-out drive into the right-field corner scored Ben Rice for the first run. A night earlier, Jones had delivered a go-ahead RBI single in the 10th inning before the Padres answered with Luis Campusano’s walk-off two-run homer.
The victory moved the Yankees to 81-61 and guaranteed at least a .500 finish for a 34th straight season. Jones ended the night batting .245 with nine home runs, 29 RBIs and nine stolen bases.
The 2022 first-round pick starred at La Costa Canyon High School and once won a home run derby at Petco Park. For a club trying to chase down Tampa Bay while protecting the top wild-card seed, the rookie’s bat had become more than a developmental story. Every productive plate appearance was beginning to carry consequences for a Yankees roster that was about to get crowded again.
An injury turns a competition into an assignment
The larger development arrived before first pitch. Trent Grisham went on the 10-day injured list with a right hamstring strain, and the Yankees recalled Jasson Domínguez from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Grisham felt the hamstring while trying to steal second base Friday, then struggled to close on Xander Bogaerts’ run-scoring single before leaving.
Jones shifted from right field to center Friday and started there Saturday. Aaron Boone then made the altered plan clear: with Grisham unavailable, the Yankees expect Jones to handle center field regularly.
Grisham had already missed time with the same hamstring, although Boone said the new strain is in a different area. The Yankees have not established whether he will return before the regular season ends. That uncertainty gives Jones a runway that did not exist when the week began.
Jones gives Boone answer against left-handed pitching
Jones’ response Saturday was especially useful because it came against a left-hander. The left-handed-hitting rookie finished the game batting .400 across 45 plate appearances against left-handed pitching this season. Both of his hits Saturday came against Ray, including the double that opened the scoring.
That split gives the Yankees a reason to view Jones as more than a matchup bat. Same-side pitching has become far less of a reason to remove him from the lineup.
His recent work reinforces the case. Over his last 18 games through Saturday, Jones is batting .365 with a .951 OPS. A PinstripesNation calculation from official game logs shows a .333/.400/.722 slash line from Aug. 31 through Sept. 5, with two home runs and six RBIs.
Ben Rice has watched the rookie handle the production, the position changes and the attention of a hometown series without appearing rushed. Rice’s assessment matters because the Yankees are asking Jones to absorb a much larger role in the middle of a postseason race.
“He keeps looking like a matured big leaguer out there, doing his thing,” Rice said. “He really slows it down well.”
Judge’s return changes Yankees’ outfield math
The next roster pressure point is approaching. Aaron Judge took on-field batting practice for a second straight day Saturday and ran the bases again as he builds back from a right rib stress fracture. The Yankees want him to face live pitching Monday in New York, and a return during the Sept. 8-13 homestand is possible.
Judge’s return was expected to force a difficult outfield decision. Before Grisham’s injury, the Yankees had Grisham, Jones, Cody Bellinger and Heliot Ramos competing for time. Now Grisham is unavailable, Domínguez is back as depth and Jones has center field.
Jones is still learning center field at the major league level, and his defensive metrics there have been slightly below average in a limited sample. But if he keeps hitting, the Yankees can return Judge without removing their hottest young outfielder from a regular role.
Yankees now get to see how firmly Jones can hold the job
Jones has already produced two decisive at-bats in his first two games of the series. He is 3-for-8 with two RBIs at Petco Park, and those hits have come in very different situations: a go-ahead extra-inning single Friday and an early run-scoring double Saturday against a left-handed starter.
For Jones, the location adds emotion but not a change in how he describes his place with the Yankees. He was asked about returning to the city where he grew up while his role with New York was expanding in real time.
“Obviously, I’m super happy with the Yankees and being here with this organization,” Jones said. “But San Diego is where I grew up and my hometown, so it was really cool.”
The Yankees close the series Sunday with Gerrit Cole scheduled to face former Yankee Michael King. Then comes the homestand and Judge’s possible return. For now, center field belongs to Jones, and his first response to the sudden opportunity has been two nights of production when the Yankees needed it.
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