Jared Jones tosses 6 shutout innings, Jack Suwinski homers as Pirates blank Dodgers

Jared Jones was full of adrenaline and battling nerves, a Los Angeles kid facing the Dodgers for the first time in his major league career and a lineup that featured three MVPs at the top of the batting order.

Jones came out throwing heat, as the rookie right-hander attacked Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman with a four-seam fastball that topped 101 mph on the radar gun three times in the first inning to show the NL West leaders what he could do in his new home.

Jones outdueled Tyler Glasnow in holding the Dodgers to three hits in six shutout innings, and Jack Suwinski hit a solo home run in his return to the Pirates for a 1-0 win Tuesday night before 24,168 at PNC Park.

“My summers growing up as a kid consisted of going to Dodger Stadium,” said Jones, a native of La Mirada, Calif. “Going out there, facing them for the first time, throwing up six zeros and giving us a chance to win, that means everything.”

Jones responded to his worst outing – six earned runs in 4⅓ innings in an 8-0 loss at Detroit last Wednesday – by delivering one of his best against a star-studded Dodgers lineup that went 0 for 12 with runners in scoring position and left five runners on base.

“I said last week that I couldn’t wait to get back on the mound again,” Jones said. “It’s a great feeling after a really rough one.”

It was Jones’ sixth quality start at home – and eighth in 12 outings this season – and he lowered his ERA to 1.95 at PNC Park in the process. Jones became the fourth pitcher in Pirates history to post six consecutive starts of six or more innings and three or fewer runs at home.

To do so required Jones (4-5) to go nearly pitch for pitch with Glasnow (6-4), who had nine strikeouts against two walks while giving up three hits in his first return to Pittsburgh since being dealt to the Tampa Bay Rays in the Chris Archer trade at the deadline in July 2018.

Pirates catcher Henry Davis said Jones was focused on the strength of his stuff, leaning on throwing his fastball 58 times and slider 29 while mixing in nine changeups and four curveballs to generate 11 whiffs and 10 called strikes, seven groundouts and four flyouts.

“I think he does a really good job in these games because he takes the name off the back of the jersey,” said Davis, who went 1 for 3 with a double in his first game back after being recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis. “He’s really not concerned with who’s up there. … Just taking the name off the back of the jersey. It can be Ohtani, it can be anybody else, but he really trusts his stuff, and that’s what lets him be as good as he is.”

Jones showed that from the start, as his third pitch to Betts touched 101.4 and his fourth 101 before getting a groundout to third. Jones then got Ohtani to chase a 101 mph fastball outside for a strikeout. Freeman singled to right, then advanced to third on Will Smith’s double to the left-center gap before Jones got Teoscar Hernandez to ground out to third to escape unscathed.

Jones and Paul Skenes – who faces the Dodgers on Wednesday – have combined to clock 101 mph 10 times this season, with Skenes accounting for seven. The only other Pirates pitcher to hit 101 was Gerrit Cole, who did it in 2013 (101.7) and 2015 (101).

The second time through, Jones walked Betts on a full count but got Ohtani to ground to short for a double play. After Freeman doubled off the bullpen fence, Jones hit Smith with a pitch to put a pair of runners on again but got Hernandez to fly out to the warning track in left.

“He grew up a Dodger fan and that’s no easy lineup to go through – and that’s an understatement,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “To go through it the way he did and continue to execute pitches – he got efficient in the fifth and sixth because he had two innings where his pitch (count) got high – and then he finished strong, which was really impressive to see.”

With a need for a center fielder after Ji Hwan Bae (right wrist) was placed on the 10-day injured list and Michael A. Taylor on paternity leave, Suwinski was recalled after only seven games at Triple-A Indianapolis. Despite batting .174 in his first 25 games with the Pirates this season, Suwinski drilled Glasnow’s full-count fastball 375 feet to right for his fifth home run to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead.

That was all the support Jones needed, as he navigated the Dodgers lineup by allowing as many walks (three) as hits. He struck out four of the final five batters he faced, getting Ohtani and Freeman on sliders in the fifth. Ohtani went 0 for 3 against Jones, with two strikeouts.

“He’s a really great player. He gets paid $700 million for a reason,” Jones said. “Getting him out three times tonight was pretty cool.”

Jones struck out Hernandez on a slider in the sixth and blew a 99.2-mph fastball past Jason Heyward on his career-high 100th and final pitch before walking off the field to a standing ovation.

“He was special tonight – but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before,” Pirates outfielder/first baseman Connor Joe said. “He’s confident, unfazed up there, just attacking. … That’s an unbelievable lineup. For him to do that, getting through that lineup three times is pretty incredible. The most impressive thing was his composure on the mound, how he carries himself. He might give up a hard hit, but he works out of it and keeps attacking. There’s no deer-in-the-headlights. There’s no timidness.”

Glasnow also finished strong. With runners on second and third, he got Nick Gonzales looking at a 97-mph fastball low and inside for a called third strike and his ninth strikeout to end the sixth.

The Pirates turned to Colin Holderman in the seventh, and he stranded Gavin Lux at second after a leadoff double. With runners on first and third and two outs in the eighth after Hernandez hit one to the warning track in center, Aroldis Chapman threw six pitches at or above triple digits and got pinch hitter Andy Pages swinging at a 101.2-mph sinker outside to escape the jam and flexed in celebration.

All-Star closer David Bednar got three flyouts in the ninth to earn his 12th save in clinching the shutout.

“That was an old-school pitchers’ duel and our offense did a good job the last two innings,” Shelton said. “We made (Glasnow) throw a ton of pitches the last couple innings because he was really efficient through the first four. If you like pitching, that was the game to watch.”