PITTSBURGH — Jared Jones’ summers were spent at Dodger Stadium. The Pirates rookie grew up in La Mirada, Calif., his high school being only 23 miles southeast of his hometown team’s stomping grounds. He remembers Yasmani Grandal homering from both sides of the plate in one game there, one of his favorite baseball memories as a fan.
On Tuesday, he got to face L.A. for the first time, and the Southern California kid won a 1-0 pitching duel at PNC Park. Jones struck out six over six innings, while Jack Suwinski provided the only run of the game with a solo shot off of Tyler Glasnow in the third.
It was clear Jones was pretty amped up for the start. He threw three pitches 101 mph or harder in the first inning, including offerings of 101.4 and 101.3 mph to Mookie Betts, the leadoff hitter. Those were the third- and fourth-hardest thrown pitches for a Pirates starter since Statcast began tracking in 2008, topped only by a 101.9 mph four-seamer from Paul Skenes on May 11 and a 101.7 mph fastball from Gerrit Cole on June 21, 2013.
But perhaps his best pitch of the inning was the 101 mph fastball up and away that blew right by Shohei Ohtani for strike three. It was the first time in Jones’ Major League career he hit 101 mph, let alone doing it three times.
“I would say it’s close [to the best we’ve seen his stuff],” said Derek Shelton. “You’re talking about that kind of lineup and having to navigate through, I would say that’s as close as we’ve seen it.”
Needless to say, Jones was pitching with adrenaline, but that also came with some shakiness early, needing to strand four runners in scoring position through the first three innings. But the 22-year-old settled in as the game progressed.
“Nerves can get to me pretty easily,” Jones admitted. “… I got a little wild a little bit, but just keeping the nerves down and going out there and competing is what got me through it.”
Some nerves can be expected when facing a childhood team, or facing a Dodgers lineup that starts with three former MVP winners — Betts, Ohtani and Freddie Freeman. Jones isn’t the type of pitcher who backs down from a challenge, though, and he went right after them. Some of his best pitches of the night were changeups to Ohtani. He shook Henry Davis’ original calls to get to more changeups, and it worked splendidly in the third, getting the two-way star to ground into a double play.