Jones pleased with performance against Tigers
BRADENTON, Fla. – Jared Jones seemed surprised when Derek Shelton strolled out to the mound with two outs in the third inning, prepared to pull the Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander from the game.
BRADENTON, Fla. – Jared Jones seemed surprised when Derek Shelton strolled out to the mound with two outs in the third inning, prepared to pull the Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander from the game.
Jones was pulled not because of his performance but rather for reaching his 45-pitch count. As he handed the ball to the Pirates manager, Shelton hooked his arm around Jones and said something that had Jones laughing.
“He called me short,” Jones said. “He figured out two days ago that he’s like a halfinch taller than me. I think I’m a little bit taller than him. But, yeah, he called me short.”
Recounting that exchange brought a smile from Shelton.
“I am taller than him,” said Shelton, like Jones listed at 6-foot as a minor leaguer with the New York Yankees in the early 1990s. “We did a measurement the other day, and I am definitely taller than he is.”
It took Jones a second to register that his short start brought about a short joke during the mound visit, but Shelton was complimentary of how the 23-year-old handled adversity in a 10-4 loss to the Detroit Tigers before 6,883 Sunday afternoon in a Grapefruit League game at LECOM Park.
Jones allowed one run on two hits and two walks but finished with four strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings, as he incorporated a pair of 101-mph sinkers into a pitch mix that featured 19 four-seam fastballs, nine changeups, nine sliders and five curveballs. Jones threw 24 of his 44 pitches for strikes, getting six called strikes and a half-dozen whiffs.
After giving up a broken- bat double to leadoff hitter Trey Sweeney, throwing nine consecutive balls in issuing back-to-back walks to Colt Keith and Wenceel Perez and giving up a run on Kerry Carpenter’s fielder’s choice in the first, Jones recovered by striking out Jace Jung.
Pirates catcher Henry Davis was impressed with how Jones worked out of that jam by throwing “some really competitive pitches” despite the automated ball-strike system. Jones got Jung to chase a changeup outside the strike zone, then followed a slider low and way with a 97.6mph heater down the middle to Dillon Dingler for a fly out to right field.
In a 1-2-3 second inning, Jones got Zach McKinstry looking at a called third strike on a slider, threw a sinker to get Bligh Madris to fly out to the center field wall and finished an eight-pitch at-bat against Jahmai Jones by getting him to swing at a 96.3-mph sinker inside.
“I think that’s the perfect opportunity for him, when guys start leaning out over the plate, ‘cause in the past, it’s been the ride heater,” Davis said. “And then most of his options against a righty go horizontally toward the left-handed batter’s box. Having that sinker to create some space with guys leaning out over, which at times we saw last year was the approach, it gives him the perfect weapon to push them off, keep his plate his.”
The second time around the order, Jones got Sweeney to ground out before surrendering a double to Keith then striking out Perez on an 89.5-mph slider to finish his outing. Ryder Ryan replaced Jones and struck out Carpenter to end the frame.
“I was proud of him,” Shelton said of Jones. “The first three or four hitters scattered the ball, and I think we saw a little bit of maturity out of Jared Jones. That’s what I told him: Last year, he would’ve got more amped up. He would’ve tried to overthrow the ball. And he didn’t. He stayed in, he made pitches, he executed. He got a jam-shot base hit and got the ground ball, but, overall, I was really pleased with the maturity that he showed.”
Jones also was pleased, especially given his previous performance against the Tigers. He started the first game of a doubleheader in Detroit on May 29, allowing seven runs (five earned) on five hits and two walks with two strikeouts in an 8-0 loss.
“I think they brought kind of a similar lineup, more or less,” Jones said of the Tigers’ batting order Sunday. “I end up escaping with the one run in the first. I thought that was a pretty good improvement.”
Notes: The Pirates got home runs from Davis, Darick Hall and Endy Rodriguez, the first of spring training for each. … The Tigers got three-run homers from Jahmai Jones (off Tim Mayza) and Thayron Liranzo (off Chase Shugart). … The Pirates reassigned left-handed pitcher Anthony Solometo, infielders Termarr Johnson and Jack Brannigan, and infielder/outfielder Konnor Griffin to minor league camp. Johnson was their first-round pick in 2022 and Griffin last year. … There are now 63 players remaining in big-league camp. … Bailey Falter is expected to start against Max Fried when the Pirates visit the New York Yankees at 6:35 p.m. Monday at George Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. The game will be televised on Sports-Net Pittsburgh and broadcast on 93.7 FM and the Pirates Radio Network.
