Jones' continued, historic brilliance backed -- at last -- by a bit of offense

Before Saturday's first pitch between the Pirates and Rockies at PNC Park, Derek Shelton noted that Jared Jones excels at focusing on "his day" when it is his turn to pitch.

Jones has had some excellent days in this first quarter of his rookie season, and he can add this performance from this rainy and chilly Saturday afternoon to the list. In the Pirates' 1-0 walkoff win over the Rockies, Jones faced one batter over the minimum and carried a perfect game through four innings in his seven scoreless innings of work. His lone blemish was a double by Elias Diaz to begin the fifth inning. He threw 96 pitches and 67 for strikes and tied his career-high with 10 strikeouts to help the Pirates end a five-game losing streak.

"I’m just going out there and doing me," Jones said. "I’m sure I’ve had some spurts in my career where I’ve pitched just like this. Some stuff happens and it goes bad for one game and it fluctuates the ERA, but no, I feel pretty good right now."

Jones struck out five Rockies looking, and his fastball was the final pitch of eight his 10 strikeouts. His fastball command was sharp, and his slider was efficient in working the left-handed side of the plate. According to Baseball Savant, Jones gathered 17 whiffs on 50 swings and threw 17 pitches for called strikes. 

Here is the graphical representation of Jones' day:

Baseball Savant

"What I thought he did better today than he's done is I thought he used the inner half of the plate to right-handed hitters," Shelton said after the game. "He did a good job of going off the plate to in, so he could use the two breaking balls, and then he did a really good job of staying on the plate in, which is hard to do."

Jones maintained his attack and pitched efficiently in the later innings. He threw 11 pitches in the fifth and sixth innings and 12 pitches in the seventh inning. He got through the first, third and fourth innings in 15 pitches, and he threw 17 pitches in the second inning. He induced four groundouts, which means two-thirds of the 21 outs he recorded were via groundout or strikeout.

Jones has registered four outings with seven or more strikeouts and zero walks through his first seven games. No major-league pitcher has ever achieved that four times. Stephen Strasburg did that three times for the Nationals in 2010. Jones is the second pitcher in Pirates history to record multiple double-digit-strikeout games in his first seven. The other is Jose DeLeon, who accomplished that in 1983. Jones' 10 strikeouts Saturday tie his career-high of 10 from his major-league debut March 30 at Miami.

"I think we're seeing the full arsenal now," Shelton said. "The first two starts, we saw fastball-slider and it was really good. There were more curveballs mixed in, there were more changeups mixed in. I think we're starting to see the full arsenal of him as a pitcher."

Jones recorded his ninth and 10th strikeouts in a 1-2-3 seventh inning. Upon walking back to the dugout, he received a standing ovation from the 24,149 fans who paid to see dominance continue. Through seven career starts, Jones has struck out 52 and walked five. He is tied for second in the National League in strikeouts, and his 2.63 ERA is eighth in the National League.

"Fastball played a lot harder than it really is, and being able to execute those pitches got me a lot of good results," Jones said.

Diaz's double to lead off the fifth was the Rockies' only damage offensively. Colin Holderman pitched a perfect eighth, and David Bednar pitched a perfect ninth for the Pirates.

"It’s awesome. I think all three of us -- me, Bednar and Holderman -- we all kept us in it and kept it a close game," Jones said.

The Pirates offense continued to struggle against a Rockies pitching staff that holds major-league worsts in ERA (5.65), opposing batting average (.285) and runs allowed (195). 

Pittsburgh did not put a runner on third base until the ninth inning. Connor Joe singled and advanced to second on a Nick Mears wild pitch, and he reached third on Yasmani Grandal's weak groundout.

That lone instance resulted in the game's only run. With two outs in the ninth, Jared Triolo drew a four-pitch walk and Oneil Cruz was intentionally walked to load the bases for pinch-hitter Jack Suwinski. Suwinski drove Mears' 0-1 fastball past a reaching Ezequiel Tovar at shortstop for the game-winning hit:

"That one feels really good, more importantly for the guys," Suwinski said. "Everyone's been working really hard and doing everything they can. Like I said, really good at-bats that inning that put us in a good position to win that game, and Jared threw really well again."

The Pirates went 1 for 5 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine runners on base. Triolo drew three walks. Joe went 2 for 3 to increase his batting average to a team-best .292.