Pittsburgh Pirates' Youngster Continues to Make History at Outset of Career
The Pittsburgh Pirates lost to the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday night, but rookie pitcher Jared Jones continued to make his presence known at the outset of his career. The rookie put himself into a special class of baseball history with another solid performance.
The Pittsburgh Pirates lost to the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday night by a score of 5-1 at Citizens Bank Park.
The loss dropped the Pirates to 9-4 on the year while the win elevated the Phillies to 7-6.
In the loss, rookie Jared Jones went 6.1 innings on the mound, surrendering three runs on six hits. He walked none and struck out eight. Through the first three starts of his career, he's 1-2 with a 4.00 ERA - and he's also joined some elite baseball history.
Per @JayHayKid of @UnderdogFantasy on social media:
Jared Jones has 25 K and 2 BB.
The only other pitcher in MLB history with 25+ K and 2 or fewer BB through their first 3 career starts is Masahiro Tanaka in 2014.
While velocity and spin rate are certainly the rage in pitching, the fundamental ability to throw the ball over the plate has always been the most important thing you can do, and Jones is certainly doing that. It's also not bad to be linked in history with Tanaka, who was an excellent pitcher for a number of years with the New York Yankees.
The 22-year-old Jones is still the No. 3 prospect in the Pirates organization. While he doesn't get the reputation of Paul Skenes, there's a chance that the two of them could be in the starting rotation later this year and form a nice, young duo moving forward.
The Pirates will take on the Phillies again on Friday night at 6:40 p.m. ET. Bailey Falter (0-0, 5.40 ERA) pitches for Pittsburgh against Christopher Sanchez (0-1, 4.82 ERA).
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