More Jones on the field and in the press conference (tied 2-2)

Adam Jones received a nice ovation when he walked to the plate in the bottom of the first inning. He grounded to third base after Nick Markakis' double scored J.J. Hardy with the tying run. Jones overran Jeff Francoeur's leadoff single in the top of the second, putting the go-ahead run in scoring position. Francoeur scored on Mitch Maier's sacrifice bunt, giving the Royals a 2-1 lead. A ground ball and an error. Not exactly the way Jones wanted to celebrate his new contract. Must be all that pressure to live up to it. Kidding. Billy Butler started the scoring with a home run in the first inning - his second in two days. Here are more quotes from today's press conference: Jones: "Now I don't have to worry about trade deadline, free agency. I don't have to worry about that. Just worry about being part of the best team in baseball, being part of the 25 that goes out there and plays baseball." Jones on whether he'll recruit free agents to come here: "I don't feel like I need to go out and lure free agents here because we've got the team, we've got the guys. Obviously, there are always a couple pieces of the puzzle that you've got to go and find, but for the most part we've got the team here. It's just a matter of doing it the whole entire year. Anybody can do it for two months. It's a six month season, though. I've said it before, if you go out there and believe in what you do and the ability that got you to the big leagues, anything can happen. On any given day, anybody can beat anybody. I feel like we can beat anybody on a given day. I'll take my team against anybody's." Manager Buck Showalter: "Adam understands the responsibility that comes along with the commitment. He doesn't run from that. And I trust him. Believe me, he interviews us a little too. He doesn't want to be around something that's not going to be worthy of the effort that he's going to put in. And a lot of people feel that way in our clubhouse, and I think Adam shares a kinship with our players." Showalter: "Adam gets a lot of things that people his age don't get about what's reality and what's not reality and what they do for a living, so it's exciting for me and, more importantly, his teammates and the fans that he's got a chance to continue to do the things (he's been doing). Everything he's gotten he deserves, because he's done what you are supposed to." Update: Xavier Avery singled with two outs in the fourth to score Robert Andino and tied the game, 2-2. Andino reached with two outs on a force out, stole second and took third on a throwing error. Avery had been 0-for-10 in this series and 2-for-22 before tying the game. He stole second base, but was stranded.