Jared Jones finally made it to Major League Baseball four years after the Pittsburgh Pirates selected him in the second round of the 2020 June amateur draft. However, he’s proving he belongs after achieving an impressive streak of strikeouts.

Jones has at least ten strikeouts in his first five starts. In his MLB debut on March 30, he has ten strikeouts in 5.2 innings against the Miami Marlins. Six days later, he had seven strikeouts in six innings against the Baltimore Orioles.

On April 11, Jones continued his impressive run with eight strikeouts in 6.1 innings versus the Philadelphia Phillies. He maintained his form in his next two games, delivering seven strikeouts each (April 16 against the New York Mets and April 22 against the Milwaukee Brewers).

Jones has 39 strikeouts in 29 innings over five games. He has a 2-2 record and a 5.79 ERA. He has a 0.828 WHIP and leads the league in strikeouts per nine innings at 12.1.

From a team perspective, the Pirates are 13-11, two games away from the National League Central leaders Milwaukee Brewers. They’ve won the first two games of their four-game series against the Brewers on April 22 and 23, a good bounce-back after losing six straight games to the New York Mets and the Boston Red Sox.

-Lance Fernandez