Jared Jones delivers another quality start but surrenders 2 homers as Phillies top Pirates

Jared Jones faced the toughest test of his young career against a Philadelphia Phillies lineup filled with All-Stars, and the Pittsburgh Pirates rookie right-hander engaged in a duel with lefty Ranger Suarez.

Jones went strikeout-for-strikeout with Suarez, matching him with 31 called strikes and whiffs. The difference, however, came as Suarez pitched six shutout innings while Jones surrendered a pair of close-call home runs.

Alec Bohm hit a solo shot that just cleared the center-field fence, and Brandon Marsh was credited with a two-run homer off the top of the left-center wall after a video review, as the Phillies beat the Pirates, 5-1, on Thursday night at Citizens Bank Park to start a seven-game road trip.

“It’s not fun when you’re losing,” Jones said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show, “and we lost today.”

It was the first back-to-back defeats for the Pirates (9-4), despite a seventh consecutive quality start. Jones (1-2) took the loss despite striking out eight without a walk — his second consecutive game without issuing a base on balls — as he allowed three runs on six hits in 6 1/3 innings.

Jones has had at least seven strikeouts in all three starts, joining Jose DeLeon as the only Pirates pitchers to begin their career that way and the first major leaguer to do so since Eduardo Rodriguez in 2015. Where DeLeon had 27 strikeouts in his first three games in 1983, Jones has 25. And Jones has drawn 58 whiffs in his first three starts.

“I think it’s just the fact that his stuff’s good. He commands it and goes right after people,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said.

“That’s a veteran lineup. They knew he was going to throw strikes. They came out really aggressive and he still was able to maintain control of the game.”

Jones (1-2) started by giving up back-to-back singles to Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner but got Bryce Harper to ground to short for a double play and JT Realmuto to line out to end the first.

After Bohm singled to start the second, Jones retired the next eight. Then Bohm hit a 1-2 curveball 407 feet to center and over a leaping Michael A. Taylor’s outstretched glove for his first home run and a 1-0 Phillies lead.

Suarez (2-0) also struck out eight while giving up two hits and two walks. The Pirates had 14 strikeouts and no extra-base hits but avoided a shutout and ended an 11-inning scoreless streak in the ninth.

“He threw the ball on the edges,” Shelton said. “He kept us off the barrel. When he’s really effective, that’s what he does. He goes to both sides of the plate. He uses the cutter and the sinker. He was really good.”

Suarez ran up his pitch count in the process, throwing 97 through six innings. Pirates designated hitter Andrew McCutchen fouled off six pitches while working an 11-pitch at bat before getting called out looking at an inside fastball in the fourth. McCutchen, seeking his 300th career home run, went down looking three times.

Realmuto hit a leadoff single to left in the seventh. After Jones struck out Bohm, he faced a full count against Marsh when the Phillies center fielder hit a slider on the outside corner 392 feet and off the railing above the fence in left-center to drive in Realmuto for a 2-0 lead.

Initially, it was ruled a double. But after a video review, the call was overturned, and Marsh was awarded a home run to make it 3-0. That was it for Jones as he was relieved by sinkerballer Colin Holderman, who was reinstated Thursday from the 15-day injured list.

“I had two really bad pitches today, and they ended up hurting me,” Jones said.

“I threw a curveball right down the middle and that went over the fence, and I threw a slider right down the middle and that went over the fence. So executing those two pitches, it’s everything.”

It only got worse for the Pirates, as a miscommunication between Taylor and right fielder Edward Olivares led to an error on a Nick Castellanos fly ball. Bryson Stott hit Holderman’s 1-0 sinker 402 feet to right for a two-run homer and 5-0 Phillies lead.

“Yeah, he gave up a homer, but I think he threw 11 pitches and he threw nine strikes and the ball came out well,” Shelton said. “It was good to see him back out there. We misplay a ball and a homer after that, but overall he looked healthy and the ball came out well.”

The Pirates got to Nick Nelson in the ninth, as Olivares hit a leadoff single, advanced to second on a single by Taylor and scored on Jared Triolo’s single to right.

“We’ve thrown the ball well. We just got pitched against by our group,” Shelton said. “I’ll say, the one thing is they keep playing. You get a run there in the ninth to just keep going. That’s what you have to do. Tonight was just one of those nights that they pitched well against us.”