Jared Jones Throws a Gem as Pirates Sweep White Sox

Don Kelly has preached that his team comes to the field with a 1-0 mindset every day, even when their playoff odds seem to be slipping away.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have clearly taken to heart this mindset, as they’ve been one of baseball's grittiest teams over the last few weeks, and now that’s showing up in the win column, too.

Even though it’ll still take a miracle for Pittsburgh to play October baseball, the Pirates are currently creating chaos in the postseason race, and that was on full display this week as they swept their Chicago White Sox in a three-game set.

The White Sox have led the American League Central for some time, but Pittsburgh cut their lead to just 1.5 games after outscoring them 15-5 in the series.

As for the Pirates, they’re still 4.5 games back, but some of their players are finding their best form right at the end of the season, and that includes whoever took the mound on Thursday.

The main storyline of the series finale on Thursday night came down to the incredible pitching performance put on by Pittsburgh’s starter Jared Jones.

It’s been an up-and-down year for Jones coming off of surgery, but he’s really starting to find his stride.

Against Chicago, Jones pitched 7.0 innings of shutout baseball, allowed only one hit, issued two walks, and struck out eight batters on 20 swings and misses. This was easily the most dominant performance the Pirates have seen from Jones this year.

Jones even took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, which is the longest by a Pirates pitcher this season. His season ERA is now 4.10 with a 1.17 WHIP while carrying an impressive strikeout rate of 28 percent.

Pittsburgh pitcher said his key to success over the last two outings has been just keeping his foot on the gas.

“Just attacking the zone, getting ahead of guys, and then putting them away when I'm in leverage counts,” Jones said postgame.

Considering the Braxton Ashcraft injury news that was announced earlier on Thursday, watching Jones go out and remind everyone why he had so much potential before the time missed was a more than welcome sight for this team.