HOUSTON -- Jared Jones gave his team a scare two batters into the game, then was in control after that.
Ryan O'Hearn homered and drove in three runs, Jones threw five shutout innings while picking up his first win in 21 months and Pittsburgh defeated the Astros, 5-1, at Daikin Park on Thursday night for its fifth win in six games.
Jones scattered four hits with two walks and four strikeouts to pick up his first win since Sept. 9, 2024. Jones allowed five runs and struck out six in 4 1/3 innings in his first start of the season on May 29 against the Twins.
Jones called the win “special.”
“First start back was obviously pretty tough, but you kind of take that stuff with a grain of salt.” Jones said. “It was the first time in 600-plus days. Nobody was expecting it. I expected it of myself. That start was always going to happen. Getting this bounceback win is a pretty cool feeling.”
Leading off the bottom of the first, Jones, who missed all of last season with a right elbow UCL sprain that required surgery, spun around and fell to the ground on a throw to first on a weak grounder by Jeremy Peña.
The right-hander uncorked a wild pitch and threw a ball in the dirt to Yordan Alvarez before manager Don Kelly and a trainer came to check him out.
Following a couple of warm-up pitches, Jones stayed in. He walked Alvarez but then struck out the next three batters to end the first.
“That was awesome,” Kelly said of Jones’ pitching performance. “Jonesy threw the ball really well. I was concerned about him after … that was an athletic attempt he had trying to make that play. That’s an extremely difficult throw to make. He landed on his elbow. He’s able to settle down there in the first inning and pitched extremely well. Then, Carmen [Mlodzinski] was fantastic out of the bullpen.”
The right-hander, who threw 74 pitches, relied heavily on a mix of his four-seam fastball and slider, but he had success with each of his four pitches.
“Obviously, I mixed a little more and threw everything I had at them,” Jones said. “It ended up working pretty well.”
He threw 31 fastballs, getting two whiffs on 13 swings with it and 27 sliders, getting six whiffs on 14 swings with it. He also got two whiffs on each of the changeup and curveball, with two strikeouts coming on the changeup and one strikeout each on the fastball and curveball.
“I think he was able to slow things down,” Kelly said. “The first inning he got up there – I don’t even know how many pitches, 25 or so – and then was able to slow things down. He was still attacking with the fastball, but I thought his slider and changeup were really good tonight.”
Mlodzinski followed Jones out of the bullpen and surrendered one run over four innings for his second career save.
“I don’t think it could have gone any better than the way it did,” Kelly said. “To score some runs and get up five, then Jared and Carmen nailed it.”
Mlodzinski was placed on the restricted list on Sunday following his move to the bullpen, but he was reinstated a day later.
“The efficiency, the competitiveness,” Kelly said of his reliever. “We know he’s going to be competitive in those situations. … He was nails out of the bullpen.”
The Bucs’ offense continued to produce, hitting a home run for the 11th straight game. It is the longest stretch for Pittsburgh since hitting a long ball in 12 straight games from Aug. 5-18, 2015.
O’Hearn had an RBI single in the first, then opened things up with a two-run homer as part of a four-run sixth inning. Bryan Reynolds’ RBI double preceded O’Hearn’s blast.
“I thought our defense was really good, pitching was efficient and again, stacking at-bats together when we needed it,” Kelly said.
After blowing a five-run lead on Wednesday night to fall to the Astros, 11-9, Kelly was happy to see how the team rebounded Thursday.
“I’m proud of the guys bouncing back,” Kelly said. “It was a tough game last night. To show some resiliency to come out tonight with the great pitching performance and put a ‘W’ against a tough team, it was a good bounce back.”