Pittsburgh Pirates' Jared Jones Wins Again, Continues Record-Breaking Rookie Season

The Pittsburgh Pirates won a divisional matchup on Thursday night, beating the Chicago Cubs, 5-4, at Wrigley Field.

The win moves the Pirates to 20-25 on the year while the loss drops the cubs to 25-20. Pittsburgh has built some nice momentum heading into Friday's matchup, which features the second career start for rookie Paul Skenes.

However, it's another rookie for the Pirates who is also continuing to wow people. Former top prospect Jared Jones got the win on Wednesday, going 6.0 innings by allowing three runs. It was another quality start for Jones, who is now 3-4 on the year with a 2.89 ERA. He also continues to make history in his first year.

According to Sarah Langs of MLB.com:

Jared Jones’ 155 swings and misses this season are the most by a pitcher in his first 9 career starts in the pitch-tracking era (2008)

prior record: Masahiro Tanaka, 150

h/t the wizard @JasonBernard_

Strikeouts are a huge part of Jones's game, as he now has 63 in 53.0 innings for Pittsburgh. With him and Skenes, the Pirates are starting develop a young pitching core that gives fans reasons for optimism moving forward. On the position player side, the team also has Ke'Bryan Hayes, Bryan Reynolds and Oneil Cruz locked up long-term.

The Pirates haven't made the playoffs since the 2015 season.

The Pirates and Cubs will play each other again on Friday afternoon with first pitch coming at 2:20 p.m. ET. Skenes will pitch against Cubs' righty Kyle Hendricks. Hendricks is 0-3 with a 10.04 ERA.

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