Jared Jones being outdueled by a fellow rookie right-hander was the least of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ concerns. They were more worried that the flamethrower had a noticeable drop in velocity on his fastball.

Pirates manager Derek Shelton and assistant trainer Tony Leo made a mound visit to check on Jones in the fifth inning but left him in the game.

Jones insisted he was healthy, but his body language raised eyebrows when he was the last player to walk off the field at the end of the inning and went straight into the dugout tunnel, causing Shelton to follow.

Rhett Lowder threw five scoreless innings, but Jones gave up six runs as the Cincinnati Reds rolled to a 7-1 win over the Pirates on Saturday afternoon at Great American Ball Park.

“Just bad. That’s all it really is, just a bad outing,” Jones told SportsNet Pittsburgh. “I’m fine. There’s no injury.”

The Pirates (72-83) have lost seven of their past nine games. Another Pirates rookie right-hander, Paul Skenes, will attempt to prevent the Reds (76-80) from sweeping the three-game series when he faces All-Star righty Hunter Greene on Sunday.

Lowder (2-2), the No. 7 overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, allowed five hits and two walks but got out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth as the Pirates stranded eight runners through the first five innings.

Jones (6-8) had no such luck. He surrendered six runs on six hits and three walks with five strikeouts while throwing 53 of his 90 pitches for strikes.

More alarming was his velocity dip from his first strikeout, getting Elly De La Cruz swinging at a 99.2-mph fastball in the first inning, to a low of 90.8 mph in the fifth. Jones averaged 95.9 mph on 49 fastballs, down from his season average of 97.3 mph.

“Terrible. Everything was terrible today,” Jones said. “That’s the answer to your question: Terrible.”

Jones, who was on the injured list from July 4 to Aug. 27 with a right lat strain, repeatedly stretched his right arm above his head between pitches. After Jones threw a 90.8-mph fastball to Ty France in the fifth, Shelton and Leo made a mound visit to check on Jones but left him in the game because they felt like his breaking pitches were still effective.

“The first fastball he threw didn’t really like the velo,” Shelton said. “Execution of the slider was still good, so we went out to just check on him but he was fine.”

Jones eclipsed his career high in innings, with 128 1/3 this season. Shelton said his concerns were reduced when he struck out France on a slider. The fastball remained in the low- to mid-90s, but Jones completed a 1-2-3 inning on 13 pitches before exiting.

“It was just the fastball, then the fastball did tick back up after that. That was the thing that kind of made me feel like he was in an OK spot,” Shelton said. “I think it’s having a conversation with him, where he was at, what his thought process was, trusting the conversation right there. If there was any thought that there was any injury, we would have made sure that we got him out of there.”

The Reds did their damage against Jones over two innings.

In the third, De La Cruz doubled to deep left-center, then scored on Tyler Stephenson’s single to right to give the Reds a 1-0 lead. France followed by blasting Jones’ 1-0 curveball 426 feet to straightaway center for his 13th home run and a 3-0 lead.

The Reds had a pair of runners in scoring position in the fourth, but Jake Fraley was forced out at home plate on Jonathan India’s fielder’s choice grounder to third. With two outs, De La Cruz crushed an 0-1 slider for a 423-foot, three-run homer to right field, giving the Reds a 6-0 lead.

“He threw the slider to Elly that didn’t slide,” Shelton said of Jones. “Just lack of execution, lack of solid execution in some crucial moments.”

The Pirates, however, stranded eight runners through the first five innings. They had runners on first and third in the fourth, but Lowder struck out Connor Joe and got Nick Yorke to line out to right.

The Pirates loaded the bases in the fifth, when third base coach Mike Rabelo held up Isiah Kiner-Falefa on Nick Gonzales’ two-out line drive to shallow left field and Bryan De La Cruz flied out to right.

“We had some opportunities and during those opportunities. We didn’t get that big hit,” Shelton said. “We didn’t have the at-bats we needed when we had runners in scoring position during the opportunities we did have.”

Lefty Jalen Beeks replaced Jones for the sixth, giving up a single to Noelvi Marte and hitting India with a pitch before De La Cruz singled through the middle to drive in Marte for a 7-0 lead.

The Pirates finally scored in the ninth, when Billy Cook hit a full-count sinker from Alan Busenitz 424 feet to left-center for his second homer.

But the story of the game was Jones and his struggles since returning from the injured list: He has posted a 6.21 ERA in his past five starts.

“I think the biggest thing is, early in the year, he was really consistent with all of his weapons. What we’ve seen is a little bit of inconsistency,” Shelton said. “Some of that is first major league season, and we’re in September. Some of it is he came off an injury and trying to do a little too much at times. But, overall, the stuff is still good. We’ve just got to make sure it’s more consistent.”

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