Pittsburgh Pirates rookie pitcher Jared Jones made Milwaukee Brewers infielder Bryce Turang swing-and-miss on a pitch so nasty it knocked him to the ground during Monday night’s contest.
Jones, an impressive and talented young rookie right-hander, threw a breaking pitch that Turang whiffed at before completely losing balance. Turang crumpled to the ground like a collapsible folding table as Jones earned the strikeout.
Turang, a decent player in his own right, couldn’t help but unsheathe a sly smile at the pure filth he was just victimized by.
While many may be surprised by the relative unknown Jones’ nastiness, baseball fans who pay close attention know that this kid is the real deal.
The Pirates have Jones on an inning limit, so he’s yet to go super deep into games, but five starts into his MLB career, Jones has been phenomenal. (RELATED: MLB Broadcasters Humbled After Getting One Hilariously Wrong)
In 29 innings he’s only allowed nine rungs, good for a 2.79 earned run average and well below the league average of 3.97. He’s also racked up 39 strikeouts, good for second in the MLB.
The 22-year-old is poised for a major breakout season. I just hope the Pirates aren’t too cautious with him. Broadcasters have speculated they won’t allow him to pitch more than 150 innings this season. That would likely see them shutting him down sometime in July or August. That would be enormously disappointing for a guy who looks like he could be Pittsburgh’s most exciting starter since they traded ace Gerrit Cole.
Long gone are the days when dudes named Old Hoss Radbourn (real name, no joke) would regularly pitch over 600 innings with no problem. Last year’s innings leader logged 216 innings pitched. Maybe dudes’ arms are getting more fragile as they crank up the heat. Or maybe guys are just mentally soft these days. Either way, I’m rooting for Jones to pitch as often as he can. The more guys he makes look this silly, the better it is for the sport.