Zach Wilt: Jones' return a positive development for Orioles

For four long days, the Orioles were without their captain in center field and his absence was felt for all 96 hours. Adam Jones rested a sore ankle and hip for three games, then was scratched from Tuesday's lineup when rain was in the forecast. The O's went 1-3 in those contests and then welcomed back No. 10 with open arms on Thursday.

It's hard to imagine the Orioles without Jones. It just doesn't feel natural. For the last decade, he's been the guy out there consistently day after day. Think about that, young fans of this club who were 8 when Jones was traded from Seattle to Baltimore are graduating from high school right now. Many of those fans don't remember Orioles baseball without Jones. Life comes at you fast.

Jones returned to Buck Showalter's lineup on Wednesday and went 3-for-5 with a homer, two runs scored and five RBIs. Welcome back, A.J. That's the most runs that Jones has driven in since April 19, 2015. His efforts helped the O's secure a 10-4 victory and a much-needed series win over the first-place Yankees. Ten runs is the most that the Orioles had scored since their 13-11 victory over the Tigers on May 16.

Last night, the captain's heroics continued. In the top of the first, Jones made a leaping catch at the wall and robbed Red Sox leadoff hitter Mookie Betts of a home run. Five pitches into the game, Boston could have taken an early 1-0 lead, but instead he helped Wade Miley record out No. 1. That play set the tone for the rest of the game. Rather than having to climb back from a deficit, the Orioles took the lead in the bottom of the first inning and held it for the entire game. Jones followed his catch with a solo homer in the sixth inning, going deep in back-to-back games, and giving the Orioles an important 4-1 lead. That's a run saved and a run scored for his club, which ended up winning 7-5.

The Birds had lost seven of their previous eight contests before Jones returned. and in the two games since his return. they're 2-0. Small sample, but I don't care. In my non-scientific calculation of WAR - let's call it zWAR - Jones has been worth 2.0 wins since returning on Thursday. Yeah, I know that's not how it works.

Seriously, if you do want to dig a little deeper into the stats, Jones has proven to be an incredible valuable asset to the Orioles in their last two contests. He led the team Wednesday in win probability added (0.13), a statistic that credits or debits a player based on how much their actions increase or decrease the chance of their team winning. His homer last night bumped the Orioles' win expectancy up to a game-high 91 percent.

Not that we needed WPA (or zWAR, for that matter) to tell us how much Jones means to the Orioles. He's the face of the franchise and the leader in the clubhouse. He's the guy the media goes to when things are going wrong and no one wants to answer questions, and the team's biggest cheerleader when they're rolling on a winning streak. Jones is the leader that every club needs in the clubhouse and we, as fans, as been incredibly fortunate the watch him play night after night.

Jones has been through the lean years and seen the triumphs. He knows the ups and downs of a season and helps to keep it all in perspective for the rest of the roster. His message is important, but more critical is the tone he sets with how he goes out and performs every day.

There's no doubt that the Orioles are a different team with Jones in the lineup. He's been the cornerstone of the Orioles since their rebuild in the late 2000s and that hasn't changed 10 years later. This club needs its captain and the results have shown just how important he is to the team's success.

Zach Wilt blogs about the Orioles at Baltimore Sports Report. Follow him on Twitter: @zach_wilt. His views appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.