During his first three starts of the spring, Jared Jones tinkered with his new two-seam fastball to see where it stood and tried to improve his curveball and changeup. In his fourth start of the spring, Jones went after hitters with his full pitch arsenal in a sharp outing.

The 23-year-old right-hander was originally set to throw a simulated game today at Pirate City but instead filled in for Bailey Falter, who was scratched due to “general soreness” after a throwing session on Wednesday.

After throwing 67 pitches over three innings against the Phillies on March 7, Jones was aggressive today and reaped the rewards. He pitched 4 1/3 innings, allowed just three hits, struck out four and walked two while giving up one earned run. 

“That wasn’t cool,” Jones said about the amount of pitches he threw in his last outing. “So, I wanted to dial it down, really attack the strike zone and try to get some quick outs.”

Jones threw just seven pitches in the first inning, starting the game with a one-pitch at bat, and then threw 15 pitches in the following inning. He threw 64 total pitches, 37 of which were strikes and mixed in all five of his pitches in the correct circumstances.

At this point in the spring, pitchers are still tweaking pitches and putting themselves in a good position for the regular season. After an offseason of trying to refine his two-seam fastball or “whatever you want to call it,” as Jones likes to refer to it, he said he feels good with where he’s at right now.

“Just keep building volume," Jones said about what’s left for him to accomplish this spring. “I feel like I’m in a pretty good spot with all my pitches. Threw all five for strikes today. Changeup was pretty good for me. Getting ahead with the curveball was also pretty nice. That didn’t happen last outing either. Just continue to build on what happened today and keep moving forward.”

Like it normally is, the slider was Jones’ main secondary pitch as he threw it 13 times and located it well throughout the outing. He also threw his changeup eight times and got three swings and two whiffs while using his curveball and two-seam fastball sporadically. Three of the four times he threw his curveball today, it went for a first-pitch strike.

However, Jones is primarily known for his fastball and he threw it 53% of the time today, attacking hitters all over the zone. He drew 15 swings and two whiffs. Of his four strikeouts, two came via a fastball. Jones caught Austin Martin looking with one right down the middle of the plate and then blew one past Brooks Lee up in the zone after setting him up with a changeup outside the bottom of the zone.

“The fastball has been good for me,” Jones said. “I thought it was pretty good for me today. Got some quick outs and some bad swings on it.”

Jones said his velocity dipped slightly in the fifth inning. He said he saw a couple “92s” on the scoreboard and started “freaking out” before ramping it back up. Baseball Savant only had two of his fastballs, which were included in his final seven pitches of the game, recorded at 93.4 mph or below and there were two fastballs in that same grouping that sat at 95.8 mph.

Along with tinkering with a new two-seam fastball, Jones has also been trying to improve his changeup and curveball to give him a healthy arsenal of pitches. He leaned heavily on his four-seam fastball and slider a year ago during his rookie season but knew he needed to add and improve his secondary pitches this season.

Jones has done just that through four spring training starts and with the Pirates having 10 Grapefruit League games left, he should have at least one more opportunity to tweak a little more. But, heading into his second major-league season, he’s in a good place.