Adam Jones Must Reverse His Postseason History for Orioles to Come Back in ALCS

Adam Jones has the swagger, the personality and the all-around game to make him a superstar in his sport.

He hits for power, he can run and he is capable of highlight-reel catches while patrolling center field for the Baltimore Orioles.

But if Jones is going to put his name front and center as one of the faces of Major League Baseball, he has to start producing in October. If Saturday's Game 2 of the American League Championship Series was any kind of indicator, Jones might be coming around:

Jones hit that game-tying home run against the Kansas City Royals and had a single later in the game. He also came up with a beautiful diving catch in the third inning.

Before going 2-for-5 in Game 2, Jones had hit .119/.156/.119 with five hits in 45 plate appearances, no extra-base hits and 11 strikeouts in 10 career postseason games.

He put together a couple of nice at-bats Saturday, but he also struck out twice, including in the seventh inning with two runners on and nobody out on three pitches from Kelvin Herrera.

Jones is a free swinger. He has the lowest walk-to-strikeout ratio (0.14) in the American League, the second-highest swing percentage on balls outside of the strike zone (42.1 percent) and the highest swing percentage (56.5) overall in the league.

That aggressiveness has hurt Jones in the postseason, when pitchers are better, relievers are dominant and strike zones tend to shrink. Jones understands his penchant for swinging freely hinders his success during the playoffs, yet he can't seem to stop himself.

"I just think that—what I do in the regular season, I think I need to cut back a little bit more in the postseason, the aggression in the regular season," Jones said in his press conference before Game 2. "I think it intensifies when the postseason comes on, the strike zone is smaller. Every pitch is that [much] more [important]. And you've got to lock in better. It's the same game, it's just the focus has to be stronger."

The Orioles need Jones to improve his plate discipline. In that seventh-inning at-bat, Jones swung at two pitches out of the strike zone, including the third that was nearly in the dirt.

When Jones homered, his first career postseason extra-base hit, he worked the count to 2-0 and then feasted on a center-cut fastball. They key in that at-bat was Jones forcing Royals starter Yordano Ventura to come into the zone with a runner on second base.

Jones has tremendous power—he's hit 119 home runs over his last four seasons, which averages to 30 per year—and as the No. 3 hitter in the Baltimore lineup, he has to ensure he gets pitches to hit. This is especially true later in games when he is facing relievers that throw hard and with movement. Because those situations are of higher leverage, Jones is less likely to see pitches down the middle unless he forces the pitcher to come after him.

If Jones can cut down on the swings and misses, he is capable of having an incredible October run. Even while he has struggled, Jones has contributed. In the Orioles' first four playoff games this year, Jones found a way to get on base and score at least once in each of them.

But the Orioles need Jones to be more of a run producer. He hits in front of major league home run champ Nelson Cruz, which should mean Jones seeing his share of decent pitches. Jones getting hot could go a long way in the Orioles making history by becoming the first team to come back and win a league championship series after losing the first two games at home.

Looking up and down the Baltimore lineup, if you had to pick one guy to break out and lead the charge back into contention, it would clearly be Jones.

Patrick Smith/Getty Images

Of all the remaining players in the ALCS, Jones has the most All-Star selections with four and the most pizzazz. He graces magazine covers, is a hit on social media and is one of the faces of Nike Baseball along with Mike Trout and Matt Kemp.

He also has the game to match his popularity, but in order for the Orioles to have a real shot at advancing past the Royals and into the World Series, Jones must get going. That, however, does not look entirely promising since Jones' recent track record against Kansas City's Game 3 starter, Jeremy Guthrie, is ugly. Jones is 1-for-12 in 13 career plate appearances against Guthrie and was 1-for-7 this season.

In order for Jones to find his swing in the playoffs, he will have to do it with the deck stacked against him Monday.

Anthony Witrado covers Major League Baseball for Bleacher Report. He spent the previous three seasons as the national baseball columnist at Sporting News and four years before that as the Brewers beat writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.