Jones strengthens great start to career with near perfection

PITTSBURGH -- There are few reasons for a crowd to roar in a 0-0 ballgame. But what Jared Jones did against the Rockies on a rainy Saturday afternoon at PNC Park was worthy of the ovation that he earned, and it played a part in setting up the biggest cheer of the day.

Jones went seven scoreless innings, allowing only one baserunner while striking out 10 batters and walking none. Even with the offense continuing to struggle for runs, Jones’ gem was not lost on the home crowd, which rose for a lengthy standing ovation as the rookie walked off the mound at 96 pitches.

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“That was a really cool feeling,” Jones said.

Then, after Colin Holderman and David Bednar each pitched a perfect inning, Jack Suwinski hit a walk-off single to give the Pirates a 1-0 victory, snapping a five-game losing streak.

Outside of a double by former Pirate catcher Elias Díaz in the fifth inning, Jones retired every batter he faced, meaning the Bucs came one batter from perfection. But if Jones continues to stay healthy and go every fifth day, the Pirates like their odds of another run at one.

“With him, if you don't go seven innings or more, it's not a good outing,” said catcher Yasmani Grandal. “That's how highly I think of him.”

It wasn’t a given that Jones would be handed the seventh inning despite how well he pitched. He knows that the Pirates are aiming to manage his workload as a rookie pitcher who has reached only 126 innings in a pro season before. But when Jones, Pittsburgh's No. 3 prospect, saw there was no action in the bullpen and the seventh was his, he was ready to go.

“It pumps me up,” Jones said. “Obviously, I’ve had a short leash before, and that was to protect me. Having [manager Derek Shelton] let me go out for the seventh, yeah, it pumped me up.”

The numbers Jones is producing are reaching preposterous levels.

By completing the seventh with another pair of strikeouts, Jones became the 10th pitcher since 1901 to reach 52 strikeouts over the first seven starts of an MLB career.

Only four of the nine pitchers joining him on that list threw 41 innings or fewer, and they’re names to remember: Kerry Wood (66 in 40 1/3 innings), Mark Prior (55 in 40 1/3 innings), Hideo Nomo (55 in 41 innings) and Shohei Ohtani (52 in 40 1/3 innings). But Jones is the first pitcher of this group to reach 50 or more strikeouts with five or fewer walks.

With his fourth start of at least seven strikeouts and no walks, Jones passed Stephen Strasburg for the most such starts in a pitcher's first seven games. And Jones’ 122 swings and misses this season are the most by a pitcher in his first seven career starts in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008).

There are probably more to add, but here’s the scary thing: The Pirates believe we’re only just now getting a glimpse of what Jones can be as a Major League starter.

“The first two starts we saw fastball/slider, and it was really good,” Shelton said. “[Today], there were more curveballs mixed in, there were more changeups mixed in. I think we're starting to see the full arsenal of him as a pitcher.”

It’s unusual to see a rookie bloom as quickly as Jones has. Shelton said he’s never seen it from a rookie starter in his tenure. But the tools Jones possesses spoke to the promise of a first month as electric as this.

Jones can touch triple digits with his fastball, but he can also adjust the speed. It plays even faster when he mixes in the high 70s curveball he threw 11 times on Saturday. And his upper 80s gyro slider tunnels the fastball so well that it leaves many batters guessing what’s coming out of the hand.

Not to mention Jones’ command of the strike zone is almost unheard of for a 22-year-old pitcher. Saturday just added another note for the history books. In the long history of the Pittsburgh Pirates, only two pitchers have struck out 10 batters and walked none in a start: John Candelaria on June 1, 1976, and Jones vs. the Rockies.

“As a hitting coach, that would give you a nightmare,” said Shelton, a former hitting coach.

But if you’re a Pirates fan, it gives you a reason for a rain-soaked standing ovation.