BRADENTON, Fla. -- Pirates catchers such as Sunday's starter Henry Davis have an extra pitch to consider this season when calling games for Jared Jones. It’s the two-seam fastball with sinking motion, and it was thrown at just the right moment against the Tigers, who won the game, 10-4, but scored just one run on two hits against Jones in his 2 2/3 innings.

Jones leaned on his four-seamer in his second Grapefruit League start, throwing it on 19 of his 44 pitches and averaging 97.2 mph. He threw just two two-seamers against Detroit, but one of them illustrated why it’s valuable.

It came on the eighth pitch to Jahmai Jones, who had just fouled off a four-seamer, a curveball and a changeup. Jones swung through the 96.3 mph pitch for strike three to end the second inning.

“I think that’s the perfect opportunity for him [to throw it], when guys start leaning out over the plate,” Davis said. “... It gives him the perfect weapon to push them off and keep his plate his.”

Jones allowed a broken-bat double to leadoff batter Trey Sweeney, and then walked the next two batters to load the bases. Did it just take him a few batters to get his feel?

“Yeah, I sucked for the first three hitters,” Jones said. “Just call it that.”

However, he allowed just one run in the first on cleanup hitter Kerry Carpenter’s fielder’s choice. Jones struck out Jace Jung and got Dillon Dingler to fly out and end the inning.

“I was proud of him,” manager Derek Shelton said. “First three or four hitters scattered the ball, and I think we saw a little bit of maturity out of Jared Jones. And that’s what I told him. Last year, he would’ve gotten more amped up. He would’ve tried to overthrow the ball, and he didn’t.

“He stayed in. He made pitches. He executed. … Overall, I was really pleased with the maturity he showed.”

Davis, whose first homer of the spring tied the game at 1 in the third inning, said Jones “knows what he does and put himself in position that he’s got some options.”

Jones threw two scoreless innings on one hit and struck out three in his first spring outing on Tuesday. He has a 1.93 ERA in the Grapefruit League with seven strikeouts and three walks in 4 2/3 innings. It’s early, but he’s off to a good start after going 6-8 with a 4.14 ERA in 22 starts as a rookie in 2024.

When asked what he focused on during the offseason, Jones said, “Improving my pitches. Added one, and making sure the two-seamer doesn’t mess with the fastball, then just refining the other ones.”

Jones’ two-seamer breaks down, while the four-seamer rises. That up-and-down combo should keep hitters off balance. Jones said he believed batters were sitting on his four-seamer and slider last season, when he threw one or the other 84.1 percent of the time.

When asked where he was on his new pitch, Jones said, “Confident.”

He threw four changeups and eight sliders against Detroit, and liked both of those pitches in the game, adding that he got “some pretty bad swings” on the change. Jones also mixed in four curves.

"Overall,” Davis said, “the stuff was sharp.”

Asked about Jones refining his five-pitch repertoire, Shelton said, “I think that’s going to be his next step for his evolution as a pitcher, a good starting pitcher. Being able to do that, being able to repeat that, because you need the full repertoire.”

When Shelton came to the mound to remove Jones after 44 pitches, they had a brief conversation. Asked for details, Jones said, “He called me short. He figured out two days ago that he’s like a half-inch taller than me. I think I’m a little bit taller than him. But, yeah, he called me short.”

What was his comeback?

“I just kind of laughed,” Jones said. “It took a second to register that he made a short joke when I was on the mound.”

Both the pitcher and manager are listed at 6 feet.

“I’m taller than him,” Shelton insisted. “We did a measurement the other day, and I am definitely taller than he is.”