Detroit Tigers: Have we been too hard on JaCoby Jones?

The Detroit Tigers defeated the New York Mets 9-8 in the Big Apple on Saturday night earning their first victory in nearly two weeks.

Finally, the Detroit Tigers have won a baseball game, ending a dreaded nine-game losing streak. In the win, Tigers outfielder JaCoby Jones was an unlikely MVP helping propel Detroit’s offense in the high scoring battle.

Jones had a very solid Friday night in Queens compared to the form he has been in for much of the season. The centerfielder went just 2-5 at the plate but made quite the impact with his two hits, racking up four RBI including a two-run homer in the second inning.

The solid night in the batter’s box helped bring Jones’ BA on the season above .200, bumping him up from .183 to .219. The 27-year-old has been struggling for much of the year, but his performance on Friday brings up the question: have Tigers fans been too hard on JaCoby Jones?

As mentioned before, Jones was hitting below .200 going into Friday and is now in the 200s for the first time since April 18th. It seems as though Jones goes through long stretches of little to no production, but when he does produce this season, he comes up big.

Jones’ deep ball on Friday was his fifth homer of the season and fourth in the month of May. In fact, it was his second home run in the last four days as he launched one deep against the Marlins on Tuesday.

Friday night’s four RBI marked Jones’ second multi-RBI game of 2019, his last coming on May 8th when he sent a two-run homer into the seats of Comerica Park in a 10-3 victory over the Angels.

The case of JaCoby Jones is a bit of a tough one to examine. He has moments where he can really shine and hit the ball pretty far. There are also plenty of times where Jones seems to be just taking up space in the Detroit Tigers lineup. For now, it doesn’t seem like JaCoby is going anywhere, so hopefully, Friday’s impressive performance will translate into further success at the plate.