DENVER -- Jared Jones didn't mince words when describing his performance in the Pirates' 16-4 setback at the hands of the Rockies Saturday night at Coors Field.
“It’s just bad, a really bad day," said Jones, who allowed a career-high six runs on six hits and four walks through 4 2/3 innings. "It happens to the best of the pitchers out there. Just try to get over it and get back out there for the next one.”
Jones gave up five or more earned runs and lasted less than five innings for the second time in his last four starts. He made it through two scoreless before allowing a solo home run on a fastball up in the zone to Hunter Goodman in the third:
Hunter Goodman with a BOMB. The Arlington native and former Tiger launches this ball 440 feet off Pirates stud Jared Jones. Third of the season for the 901 product. pic.twitter.com/CMi1oztBdP
— Matt Infield (@Matt_Infield) June 16, 2024
"I threw a couple pitches, balls were put in play and I thought it would be a fly ball out and it ended up going to the wall," Jones said. "I’m a four-seam guy and I’m trying to get pop fly outs and that same stuff just kind of happens.”
While he managed to get three straight outs following Goodman's go-ahead shot, things began to unravel more in the fourth when Jones allowed a walk and three doubles, including one from Jake Cave that plated two runs and another from Goodman that scored a third. Jones faced five batters in the fifth, giving up two more free passes, a double to Ryan McMahon and two more runs that scored on McMahon's infamous steal of home and a sacrifice fly by Elehuris Montero.
"Yeah, this is a pretty tough place to pitch. Obviously, breaking balls don't break the way that they usually break. And sometimes, you have outings like this," Yasmani Grandal said. "But yeah, I mean we did whatever we could do to try and get him through and we just couldn't get him through. That's pretty much it. We just didn't have it."
When Jones is as effective as he was through seven scoreless innings against these same Rockies on May 4 at PNC Park, he's been able to show sharp command of his fastball and efficiently use his slider to keep hitters off balance. On this night, Derek Shelton thought Jones' slider was flat and that he left it up at times, giving opposing hitters opportunities to take good swings at it. Jones, who threw 54 of his 85 pitches for strikes, also lacked the same type of feel for his fastball, a pitch he turned to 56% of the time and generated just six whiffs with.
“The slider wasn’t its best today. It wasn’t really sharp," said Jones, who threw the slider 25 times. "The fastball stuff, everything was just down today in general. I’ve got to go out there and get better.”
Grandal said Jones is simply going through a rough patch that every pitcher, even one as good as Jones, has to plan for at times during a 162-game season. His previous worst start came late last month in Detroit when he gave up seven runs (five earned) on five hits and two walks in a career-low 4 1/3 innings. This particular outing pushed his season ERA from 3.27 to 3.76.
As he attempts to move forward, Jones wants to make sure he doesn't let an outing like this get to his head and affect future starts.
“Like I said, everyone has their bad days and today was a really bad day for me," Jones said. "Going out there and just trusting my stuff for whenever the next one is.”
Shelton is confident that when Jones does make his next start, he’ll find a way to be better.
"Yeah, he's gonna battle back. I mean, this kid's got really good stuff,” Shelton said. “I think at times because he started off so good, he's gonna have tough starts. And, I think we have to realize that and just keep going."
Three different relievers combined to allow 10 runs upon Jones' exit in the fifth inning. Kyle Nicolas gave up a run on three hits in 1 1/3 innings before Justin Bruihl and Dennis Santana allowed three and six runs, respectively, over two combined innings
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