He admitted he had to find different activities that he wouldn’t normally do.

“You do nothing for about a month until you can actually move your elbow,” Jones said. “I had a remote control boat and had that out on a pond. I was kind of going through it there.”

Jones has made it back to his third rehab appearance, which was spent with the Curve on Tuesday night.

Jones threw four shutout innings, allowing three hits and struck out four on 52 pitches in Altoona’s 1-0 win over the Harrisburg Senators at Peoples Natural Gas Field in a game that needed just 1 hour, 58 minutes to be completed.

Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski Curve starter Jared Jones.

Curve manager Andy Fox confirmed that the plan is for Jones to make another start with the Curve on Sunday evening in the series finale with Harrisburg.

“The biggest thing is he was filling up the zone with all his pitches,” Fox said. “Very efficient work.”

Jones’ fastball sat right around 97-98 miles per hour throughout his four innings of work, and also touched 99 a few times. He reportedly touched triple digits in his first two rehab appearances, the first one with Low-A Bradenton, and the second last week with Triple-A Indianapolis.

It’s reminiscent of his days here in 2023, when he made 10 starts and had a 2.23 earned run average over 44 innings.

“Probably the best I’ve ever thrown the ball in my career was here,” Jones said. “It’s pretty fun getting back here.”

Results matter

It’s not so much about what a starting pitcher’s line looks like when it comes to rehab appearances, but don’t tell that to Jones.

Two of the Senators’ three hits came from Seaver King, the Washington Nationals’ No. 8 prospect, according to mlb.com. After King’s second hit, Jones slammed the rosin bag behind the mound.

Although he got angry, Jones tipped his cap to King after the game.

“That kid was 2 for 2 off me,” Jones said. “He’s a pretty good player.”

Jones’ future

Jones rejected any possibility that he may work out of the bullpen when he returns to the Pirates. He will be in the rotation, and Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said a return could happen before the end of this month.

“I’m really anxious to get back,” Jones said. “We have a winning team with really good players on it. I’m counting down the days.”

Duce is loose

The lone run of the game came on a solo home run from Duce Gourson, his second of the season, in the fifth inning.

“It’s good to see. He’s been scuffling a little bit,” Fox said. “He’s been putting in the work. It’s good to see him get some results in a game.”

Up next

The two teams play an 11 a.m. game this morning. Josh Loeschorn starts for the Curve opposite Harrisburg lefty Shinnosuke Ogasawara.