PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – To say this game was special to Pirates starting pitcher Jared Jones is selling it way short. Jones full of smiles and an obvious wink when asked if he reached back for more to strike out Shohei Ohtani Tuesday night. Jones beat the team he grew up watching by the slimmest of margins, 1-0.
"I mean, my summers growing up as a kid consisted of going to Dodger Stadium,” Jones said. “Going out there, facing them for the first time, throwing up six zeros and giving us a chance to win, that means everything."
“You could just see him getting more and more confidence as the game wore on,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “There were some misses in there right at our guys. It’s kind of that ‘effectively wild thought’. You don’t get comfortable in there especially when a guy is throwing 100 miles an hour.”
“He made pitches when he needed to and definitely pitching against us I’m sure he had a little extra motivation.”
"You see with the velo, a little bit of adrenaline early and as he got tired down the stretch, he actually got better,” said catcher Henry Davis noting Jones threw eight pitches of 100 miles-an-hour in the first inning. “So obviously that's super talented and just awesome to see him be himself."
“He's got to be fired up,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton. “He grew up a Dodger fan and that's no easy lineup to go through and that's an understatement. To go through it the way he did and continue to execute pitches – he got efficient in the 5th and 6th because he had two innings where his pitch count got high and then he finished strong, which was really impressive to see."
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The 22-year-old admitted to some nerves that led to him getting a little bit wild. As the nerves calmed down, he was able to just go out there and compete. Jones would give up just three hits in six innings, walking three, hitting a batter and striking out six.
It was also a 180 from his worst start as a Major League pitcher. In 4.1 innings last week against Detroit, Jones gave up seven runs (five earned) on five hits, a pair of walks and strikeouts.
“I think his first four or five starts, we all got enamored with all the swings and miss,” Shelton said. “The game's not that easy. The Tigers game, they attacked him a little bit. For him to bounce back after what you would say was his worst outing and then come back and do it against this team, I think that's extremely impressive and I think that shows you the kind of moxie this kids’ got."
"I said last week that I couldn't wait to get back on the mound again,” Jones said. “It's a great feeling after a really rough one."
“The maturation that we've seen probably over the last probably year, not just in the big leagues but even last year in Indianapolis,” Shelton said. “To be able to pitch at this level and be able to pitch ay a high level you have to be able to control your emotions. We're seeing him start to do that."
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It’s about countering when the league punches back, Jared Jones did it like a champion on Tuesday.