PIRATES

Two sliders left at the bottom part of the strike zone played a role in a rough outing for Jared Jones in the Pirates' 11-2 loss to the Athletics, one that dropped them to below .500 for the first time since late March, here tonight at Sutter Health Park. 

After allowing three straight hits and then admirably finding a way out of a bases-loaded jam with three straight strikeouts in the first inning, Jones surrendered a one-out double to Henry Bolte before Jeff McNeil and Nick Kurtz timed up his go-to breaking pitch. McNeil drove in Bolte by taking a 1-1 slider on the outer part of the plate and going the other way for an RBI single. Then, Kurtz followed with a two-run shot, his 17th of the season, on a 3-2 slider he sent out to left field: 

"(The slider) didn’t seem as sharp as his last outing," Don Kelly said of Jones, who allowed five runs on eight hits, including two homers, in four innings. "I thought last outing it was sharper. Fastball velocity was there. Seemed like the ball was coming out pretty well. He just didn’t have the breaking ball today, it didn’t seem."

As he did before an elbow issue caused him to undergo surgery and miss more than a year, Jones has turned to his slider as his main complementary offering since returning to the big leagues late last month. 

It's a pitch that generated plenty of swing and miss (38.5%) and held hitters at bay (.222 opposing batting average) over his first three starts. But, on this particular night, Jones wasn't executing with it. He threw 10 of his 21 sliders out of the strike zone and just three resulted in either a called strike or a whiff. Two of his sliders resulted in outs on balls in play and three were hit, including the ones thrown to McNeil and Kurtz. 

Due to the lack of execution with the slider, Jones turned to a third option in his changeup more often (41%) the second time through the Athletics' order. He threw it 18 times and said he felt confident with it, but eight of those pitches were left out of the zone. Two resulted in big hits -- an infield single by Lawrence Butler and a two-run homer by McNeil in the fourth inning. 

As for his slider, Jones described it as "bad." 

"Couldn’t throw it for strikes," he said. "When I did, it was getting pounded."

This was yet another abbreviated start for Jones, who has been around the 74 to 77 pitch range over five or fewer innings in each of his four starts. He finished his four innings tonight at 75 pitches and isn't going to make any excuses regarding the manner in which he's performed, as he's now allowed five runs in two of his starts. 

"I’m in the Major Leagues," Jones said. "I’m out here to win baseball games, and I haven’t been doing that."