More on Adam Jones' injury and a 5-3 loss (Jorge Rondon optioned)

KANSAS CITY - To the surprise of no one, Orioles center fielder Adam Jones said following today's 5-3 loss to the Royals that he feels fine and he expects to play Friday night in the series opener against the Rangers in Arlington.

Jones underwent X-rays on his wrists and neck after slamming into the unpadded portion of the fence at Kauffman Stadium while chasing Ben Zobrist's fly ball in the bottom of the first inning. He left the game in the third, saying he didn't feel like himself.

Manager Buck Showalter said Jones was experiencing blurred vision and whiplash-type symptoms, but X-rays came back clean and the Orioles don't believe he sustained a concussion.

Rangers team physician Dr. Keith Meister will examine Jones on Friday.

One of Jones' least enjoyable tasks is talking to reporters about an injury. Same as when he slammed into the fence at Yankee Stadium or rolled his ankle while crossing the plate against the White Sox.

"Nothing is wrong with me. I'll probably play tomorrow," he said tonight after removing ice packs on his shoulder and wrists.

"Just didn't feel myself so there's no point in me not feeling myself. We got a great team, great guys that can go in there and fill in. I'm not going to be out there when I'm not myself."

Asked how he felt now, Jones replied, "Great. How you feel?"

"Go out there and run against one of them walls," he added. "The stuff doesn't feel good. The stuff looks soft from the eye but it's not as soft as it is. I'm going out there trying to make a catch for (Chris) Tillman, for my team."

Jones stayed down on the warning track while Showalter and head athletic trainer Richie Bancells rushed onto the field.

"I just had to catch my breath," Jones said. "Just had to gather what was going on. Happened so fast, I was just giving myself a second to think and process what's really going on."

Jones corrected a reporter who called him one of the toughest players on the team.

"Probably the toughest," he said with a slight grin, adding it was one of the hardest hits he's absorbed. "I don't come out of the game much, especially once the game starts. I just wasn't me. And hopefully I feel a lot better tomorrow.

"I didn't lose balance. I was lunging at the ball trying to make a catch. Once I lunged I was unable to get upright."

Showalter provided an update to reporters before Jones was available.

"X-rays on both wrists and neck just to make sure. Cervical or whatever," Showalter said. "Richie was just telling me some of it during the game. But he feels a lot better now than he did. His vision was a little ... Most of it was whiplash. I don't think there's any head trauma concussion-wise. Dr. Meister will take a look at him in Texas tomorrow, and we'll see where we are with it.

"Any time Adam says anything is bothering him, you better multiply it times two because he's a tough nut."

Jones stayed in the game until Paul Janish pinch-hit for him in the third. Janish had two hits and two outstanding defensive plays at shortstop.

"He was giving us pretty good symptoms there, but when he came back in and he was looking out at (Yordano) Ventura between innings, you could tell something was amiss from the whiplash. And anybody who's had it, it does some things. Confident he'll be OK shortly, but that's yet to be seen when," Showalter said.

"Most of it he took putting his wrists up there on this structure that they let them put up there so they can sell more signage. You go figure. It's plexiglass right behind it. It's like running into plexiglass. Of course, you've got metal in Houston. You've heard me go on and on about it and this is a great example of it. I know why they do it, so they can sell more signage to pay more contracts. I got it. But the safety issue there, I'm not happy about it."

Showalter won't place odds on Jones being in Friday's lineup.

"I know what Adam is already telling me and I know what Richie is saying, so somewhere in between," he said. "We'll figure it out."

Showalter said his concern wasn't heightened by the status of the injured player.

"Anybody," he said. "It's not just Adam. It could be Paul Janish, it could be Ryan Flaherty. That's why we spent so much more money to make sure our structure in Sarasota was the safest one in the Grapefruit League. It's something that's been a challenging issue for a lot of ballparks.

"I try not to think the worst, but Adam, he's a tough guy. He's going to try to make a good play and couldn't quite get there. I try not to think like that, but I understand how it would pass through everybody's mind."

Steve Pearce, playing left field, was the closest player to Jones.

"I saw it and I heard it and he hit that thing really hard," Pearce said. "Usually, Adam is the type of guy when he dives, he gets right back up. When he was staying down and from what I heard, I was like, 'Whoa, someone get out here,' because that was pretty scary.

"Seeing a guy like Adam go down, big game, we need wins. I'm just glad he was able to get up and finish the inning. I know he had to come out, but at least the good sign was that he was able to get up and finish the inning."

Asked about the lack of padding on the fence in left-center, Pearce replied, "I didn't really notice it, but I heard it. It didn't feel comfortable. I know that. I don't know how it feels.

"It didn't sound comfortable. Let's put it that way. He hit that thing pretty good, especially since it was a long run and he gave that last effort full extension to try to get that ball. Then after it went past, he couldn't slow down. It was a thud."

Janish was part of a three-man bench until the injury. He ended up with the only two hits off Ventura.

"I wasn't expecting to get in the game, but I guess it worked out OK. The ambush was a good tactic," he said. "It's unfortunate. I haven't heard about Adam, but I hope that he's OK. Unfortunately, we weren't able to win the game.

"It's just one of those things. Honestly, it didn't even register to me that it would correlate with me going in the game, but it turned out it did. When he got up and stayed in the game, I thought he was a 'good-to-go' type of thing. I guess he must have gotten a little dizzy, some residual effects, but hopefully he's OK."

Told that Showalter said Janish's defense comes as advertised, he replied, "I guess it's how you're advertised, right? It's good from my point of view because I take a lot of pride in that, and over the course of my career, it's been a good feather in my cap, so I know that he's indicating to me that he has confidence in me, which for me is a good thing."

Showalter said he had a few other options after Jones left the game, but he chose to go with his strongest defensive unit. Janish played shortstop, Ryan Flaherty moved to first base, Chris Davis went to right field and Gerardo Parra moved to center.

"That's why we did it that way," Showalter said. "Close game, two good pitchers that we wanted to defend and we wanted to put people in places they've been before. We could have moved Ryan back over to shortstop and Chris back in. We were covered. Jimmy (Paredes) can play multiple places.

"Because of where we're playing and playing 20 days in a row, we have to be careful on all fronts. You're always looking for versatility out of your people."

Chris Tillman took the loss after allowing four runs and nine hits in six innings.

"We multiply it so much because we weren't scoring any runs," Showalter said. "We struck out, what, 14 or 15 times? And we have three hits going into the last inning and one of those was a home run. He was very close to having a good outing, but you need a good one with the people they run out there pitching.

"I think Chris presented himself pretty well, all things considered."

Tillman rated his performance as "OK" overall.

"Our gameplan coming in was to keep the ball on the ground," he said. "For the most part, that's what we did. Made some mistakes that they were able to hit hard and drive. Overall, we were able to get a lot of soft contact into the ground."

The Orioles lost three of four games in Kansas City and have dropped eight of their last 10 to again fall below .500.

"Any time you lose, it's disappointing, but these guys threw the ball well all series and their lineup speaks for itself," Tillman said. "They battle and they wait until a pitcher makes a mistake and I think they pretty much did that the whole series."

Losing Jones just added to the misery of the day.

"It's not fun watching a guy do that, especially him," Tillman said. "He's had a couple injuries this year. He plays the game hard, and if he plays tomorrow, he'll do the same thing. That's how Adam is.

"As a pitcher you appreciate it, but you also have a moment there to kind of think about it. It's scary. It really is."

The Orioles optioned reliever Jorge Rondon to Triple-A Norfolk after the game. They need to bring back catcher Steve Clevenger from paternity leave on Friday.

Outfielder Dariel Alvarez isn't in Norfolk's lineup tonight. As I've reported, he's supposed to join the Orioles in Arlington on Friday.

Rondon has allowed one run in 7 1/3 innings over three appearances with the Orioles.