Pirates-Dodgers preview: Bucs need Jared Jones to find early-season form against Tyler Glasnow
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If Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Jared Jones is looking to rediscover his early-season form, he’s got a spotlight chance to do so Tuesday.
The Pirates are at home against the star-studded Los Angeles Dodgers. They lead the National League West at 38-23. Only the Phillies (41-19) have a better record in the NL.
If Jones is to get back to the eye-popping efficiency he flashed early in the season, it’ll be a challenge against the Dodgers, who boast the third-highest run total in the NL with 297. Not only that, but L.A. also has the most home runs in the NL (77), the highest team OPS (.766), the highest slugging percentage (.432), the second-best on-base percentage (.334) and the third-best batting average (.256).
Los Angeles designated hitter Shohei Ohtani is third in the NL in batting average (.322), and teammate Mookie Betts is fourth (.318). Ohtani is tied for second in the NL in homers with 14, while outfielder Teoscar Hernandez is tied for sixth with 12. Four of the top-13 NL RBI leaders are Dodgers as well. Hernandez and Ohtani are tied for sixth with 38. Catcher Will Smith has 37 in 11th place, and first baseman Freddie Freeman is 13th with 35.
As for Jones, he is coming off the worst start of his rookie year, allowing seven runs (five earned) against the Detroit Tigers in 4 1/3 innings en route to an 8-0 loss on Wednesday. That dropped his record to 3-5 and raised his ERA to 3.55.
Jones was brilliant May 4 against the Rockies, twirling seven innings of shutout baseball when he allowed just one hit and totaled 10 strikeouts while walking none. Since then, though, the rest of May didn’t end well.
In his last four outings to end the month, the 22-year-old right-hander was 1-2 with a no-decision in a Pirates loss in the mix too. He also allowed 13 runs over 22⅓ innings (5.24 ERA) to close the month. The opponents’ OPS over that time has been .827, with a .304 batting average on balls in play.
For as dynamic as Jones’ mix of pitches was in the zone over his first seven starts, batters have been able to handle them better the last four times out. By comparison, Jones had a 2.63 ERA through his first seven starts, a 52:5 strikeout-to-walk ratio, a .184 batting average against and an opponent OPS of just .588.
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The La Mirada, Calif. native is going to have to be sharp against his former hometown team. He’ll be opposed by Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow. The former Pirate is 6-3 with a 3.04 ERA. He leads MLB with 95 strikeouts (Jones has 70, 14th in the NL). Glasnow’s 0.91 WHIP is third best. So is his .174 batting average allowed.
Not to mention that Jones hasn’t exactly been getting a lot of run support. In seven of Jones’ 11 starts, the Pirates have scored two runs or less. In total, Jones has gotten just 32 runs of support, and nine of them were during his first outing of the year when the Pirates won 9-3 in Florida against the Marlins. Since then, the Pirates have been averaging 2.3 runs of support for Jones over his 10 most recent outings.
However, like Jones, Glasnow hasn’t been stellar of late either. He hasn’t picked up a win since May 4, and his ERA over his past three starts is 4.76 over 17 innings pitched.
Both pitchers have a chance to rack up big strikeout totals, not only because of their individual numbers, but both the Dodgers and Pirates strike out more than most teams in baseball. In fact the Pirates’ 564 strikeouts are the most in the NL and the Dodgers have 503, which is seventh in the NL.
However Jones manages to get the Dodgers out, it’s just important he matches Glasnow. If not pitch for pitch, then close to it. We all know the Pirates’ hitting and bullpen aren’t going to help him.
After all, not only are the Pirates relying on Jones for quality starts in the hopes of staying on the fringes of the wild-card race, but they also need to keep selling what this rotation can be for the rest of the year and into the future.
Because those are the only two things the Pirates can sell at all right now: the rotation and hope.
Well, unless you count bobbleheads and fireworks, of course.
That said, the Dave Parker one last week was sharp. I’ll give ‘em that.