CHICAGO – Nolan Jones made no excuses. He felt he should have made the play — again.
Jones had another adventure in left field during Colorado's 5-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Monday — a day after he made a costly defensive mistake at Arizona.
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The Cubs had runners on first and second with one out in the sixth inning when Jones charged Christopher Morel's hard-hit single into left field. The ball went under Jones' glove and rolled all the way to the wall on a cold, overcast day at Wrigley Field.
“It was just a routine ground ball,” Jones said. “I came up hard and thought I was going to have a play at the plate and peaked up a little bit and the ball snuck under my glove.”
Jones’ throw from the warning track got away from second baseman Brendan Rodgers in the outfield grass, and Morel scored on a headfirst slide.
Jones was handed two errors on the play — and it helped the Cubs to a 3-0 lead. He also dropped a routine fly ball during Sunday’s 5-1 loss at Arizona, leading to two unearned runs.
“It’s two days in a row that I’ve made mistakes in the outfield and lost us games,” he said. “It’s unacceptable and I need to be better for our team.”
Colorado manager Bud Black said Jones “feels horrible.”
“We caught up actually after the game, he came in,” Black said. “But again, you got to get back to basic fundamentals. I think that’s something that the coaches and I stressed to Nolan the last couple of days. He’s just getting ahead of himself a little bit. He’s trying really hard in that situation today.”
Jones also went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts at the plate. He is 2 for 20 with eight strikeouts over Colorado's first five games.
The Rockies have been outscored 37-14 during their 1-4 start.
The 25-year-old Jones was acquired by Colorado in a November 2022 trade with Cleveland. He is coming off a breakout season, batting .297 with 20 homers, 20 steals and 62 RBIs in 106 games.
“I worked really hard this offseason. I know what’s right. I know what to do,” he said. “And now I think I’m putting a little more pressure on myself to make the good play, make the big play, throw the guy out at home, and it’s cost us back-to-back games.”
Hudson, who was on the mound for Jones' play against the Cubs, didn't sound too concerned.
“It’s part of the game,” he said. “I love that he’s coming in so hard to try and save me that run. It’s going to mean a lot going forward, and it was unfortunate that it did happen. But that guy’s gonna save our pitching staff so many runs over the course of a season. So, it’s one of those you just kind of wipe clean and get it back out there tomorrow and continue to play hard like he is.”
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB