PITTSBURGH -- The Pirates hadn’t won five straight games since March 31-April 5. After winning the series finale against the Brewers on Thursday and sweeping the Royals over the weekend, Tuesday’s game put Pittsburgh in the win column for the fifth straight game once again.
The Pirates defeated the Cardinals, 2-0, Tuesday behind seven scoreless innings by Jared Jones for the 80th win of the season. He allowed just one baserunner (one hit), struck out nine batters and Pittsburgh tallied 80 wins for the fifth time since 1993.
Jones retired the first 16 batters in order, striking out six and inducing weak contact as the wind blew in heavily at PNC Park. Jones entered the outing on fire, allowing just three runs across 18 innings (three starts) in September.
The season’s final month has been a proving ground for Jones, who continues to grow more dominant the further away he is from internal brace surgery on his right arm in May 2025. Jones went perfect through six innings on July 8 against Atlanta before being taken out due to his high pitch count. After some ups and downs in August, Jones found dominance again, carrying a no-hit bid into the seventh inning versus the White Sox on Sept. 10 in Chicago.
Jones' torrid stretch rolled through the fifth inning on Tuesday against the Cardinals. Pitch count has often stopped Jones from pitching into the final innings this season. Though it wasn’t too much of an issue on Tuesday, as he tallied only 59 pitches through five perfect innings.
Jones’ perfect game (and no-hitter) ended with one out in the sixth inning, when Nathan Church sliced a ball the opposite way out of reach of third baseman Jacob Gonzalez. The ball trickled into left field for a double. However, Jones left him stranded on second to keep the game tied at 0. Pittsburgh promptly took the lead in the bottom half of the inning with Ryan O’Hearn’s RBI single scoring Oneil Cruz.
Exiting after 86 pitches, Jones is scheduled to pitch the season finale on Sunday. The Pirates added another run in the seventh on a wild pitch, and closed the door with Luke Weaver and Gregory Soto for the win.