Jared Jones sharp as Pirates hang on to beat Cubs in 1st of 4-game series

Pittsburgh Pirates rookie pitcher Jared Jones has been let down by the rest of the club on several occasions this season.

Largely thanks to insufficient offense behind him, Jones took losses in three outings, all of which were quality starts, heading into his appearance against the Chicago Cubs on Thursday at Wrigley Field.

This time, Jones put together another quality start, and the Pirates survived a rough eighth-inning appearance by Colin Holderman to hang on and win 5-4.

The 22-year-old Jones (3-4, 2.89 ERA) lasted six innings, allowing three earned runs on seven hits. He struck out seven, walked none, and 66 of his 91 pitches for strikes.

“Just pounding the strike zone has been the key for me this year,” Jones said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “Keep getting after it the way I have been, it’s a good key for success. … I was super pumped to keep us in it and get us in line for the win.”

Edward Olivares and Nick Gonzales homered for the Pirates (20-25), and Yasmani Grandal and Bryan Reynolds also collected RBIs.

The Pirates scored all of their runs off Cubs starter Justin Steele, against whom they managed six runs on Saturday at PNC Park, when Steele battled Paul Skenes in the latter’s MLB debut.

After Jones exited, Aroldis Chapman pitched a scoreless seventh and was followed by Holderman in the eighth.

Seconds later, he plunked Seiya Suzuki on his first pitch, with Cody Bellinger reaching base on a short dribbler into no man’s land between home plate and the mound.

Grandal, attempting to gun Bellinger out at first, instead sailed the ball past left-handed first baseman Rowdy Tellez, who entered the game that inning in place of Connor Joe, who moved to right field.

The error on Grandal put men on second and third with no outs.

Christopher Morel plated Suzuki on a sacrifice fly, making the score 5-4, but Holderman limited the damage to a run and preserved the lead.

In the ninth, David Bednar retired the Cubs in order to earn his ninth save.

Olivares hit a two-run homer off Steele in the top of the first, putting the Pirates up 2-0, but Ian Happ hit a solo shot in the second, trimming Chicago’s deficit to one.

After a scoreless third inning, the Pirates and Cubs traded runs in five straight frames through the top of the sixth.

In the fourth, Gonzales homered, but later that inning, Nick Madrigal scored Michael Busch, who doubled, with an RBI single off Jones.

Gonzales’ home run was his second in six games since being promoted from Triple-A Indianapolis.

“It’s exciting,” Gonzales said. “A testament to hard work, putting my faith in these guys and the hitting coaches and everyone. I’ve been working hard, and it’s nice for it to show up.”

Up 3-2 to begin the fifth, the Pirates took a 4-2 lead thanks to Reynolds’ RBI double, which plated Michael A. Taylor, who led off with a double.

The Cubs got one back in the bottom of the fifth, when Bellinger knocked in Mike Tauchman with an RBI double.

The Pirates’ final run came in the sixth, when Grandal scored Olivares, who doubled, with a sacrifice fly to right field that was badly misplayed by Suzuki, resulting in an error.

Olivares was the only Pirate with multiple hits, going 2 for 4 with two RBIs and two runs.

It was a rough night for Jack Suwinski, who struck out four times in as many at-bats.