The Pirates rebounded from a brutal loss to win the series against the Astros in Houston. The Bucs rallied behind two spectacular outings from Jared Jones and Carmen Mlodzinski, and the offense was carried by Ryan O’Hearn heroics. The pitchers only allowed one run to score on an Isaac Paredes home run and the offense kept peppering the bases with runners and knocking them home. Watch Doug and I break down the game in full detail here:
Jared Jones is Back
Jared Jones had a very rough first outing in the majors since 2024 last week, but on Thursday he looked phenomenal as he grew into this start. Jones went 5 innings on 74 pitches, striking out 4, allowing 6 base runners, and surrendering no runs. While the stat line looks great, what excites me most are the numbers behind his breaking pitches. In his rookie season, Jones ran into an issue where hitters could sit on fastballs and sliders and hit him hard because he only had 2 pitches. On Thursday, he generated 10 whiffs from 3 breaking pitches, and all graded out as 70-grade pitches. Jones kept the Astros honest by throwing in a nasty curveball and changeup that allowed his slider to really shine. If Jones has developed 4 usable pitches, he genuinely has ace potential, assuming he can continue to work on his command. My mind finds it hard to comprehend his slider grading out at 130 Stuff+. Adding Jones to the 3-headed monster playoff rotation with Skenes and Ashcraft would make the Pirates extremely annoying to face in a 7-game series.
This Offense Does Everything Well
The Pirates have a top 5 offense in baseball by almost every conceivable metric you could ask for. Scoring 5 Thursday was light, as they scored at least 9 in each of their last 4 games. Ryan O’Hearn’s single and home run that drove in 3 of their 5 runs proved to be too much for the Astros to overcome. It also highlights the depth of the lineup and how many options the Pirates have despite not featuring their phenom rookie or their 12 million dollar free agent signing. Six of the Pirates 9 hitters in this one have an OPS well over .800, and the only one who stands out as being egregious is Jared Triolo‘s OPS of .530.
As a team, the Pirates lead MLB in hits, are 4th in runs scored, 3rd in batting average, 2nd in on base percentage, 3rd in steals, 10th in home runs, 3rd in stolen bases, and 8th in slugging. This is a team that gets hits, hits for power, runs like maniacs, and overall causes chaos for opposing pitching staffs. The new additions of Lowe and O’Hearn cannot be overstated in terms of how high they have raised the ceiling and floor of this team. The two veterans combined for 4 hits in this win and 3 of the 5 runs scored off the Astros. What a turnaround from last year’s snoozefest.
Oneil Cruz Can Break the Strikeout Record for All I Care
Oneil Cruz is speedrunning his way to the MLB record for most strikeouts in a season, and yet I cannot begin to care about this even a little bit. Oneil reached base 4 times in this one with a pair of singles and walks apiece. Cruz is proving to the world that you can be a menacing hitter despite high whiff rates with his elite combination of speed and power. Cruz is on pace to hit over 30 homers, drive in over 110 RBI’s, and steal over 50 bases. He currently sits at an .831 OPS and has shown great development in his ability to hit off of lefties. The Pirates found Cruz some lineup protection, and the results are incredible to witness. He looks very comfortable up at the plate; he walks a ton, and when he gets a hold of a ball, it becomes must-watch television. He is finally living up to the pedigree of being a former top 5 prospect in baseball, and no one deserves this success more than him. Ever since he took the move to centerfield in stride (a position he has never played before in his professional career), he has shown the maturity of a leader in the clubhouse.
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