NL East-leading Braves break up Pirates’ combined perfect-game bid in the 7th on Albies’ single

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The NL East-leading Atlanta Braves broke up a combined perfect-game bid by Pittsburgh Pirates pitchers Jared Jones and Mason Montgomery in the seventh inning Wednesday night.

Jones started and struck out eight on 77 pitches, including 53 strikes, before being replaced by Montgomery at the start of the seventh. Montgomery got Michael Harris II to ground out to first before allowing a single to left field by Ozzie Albies, ending the bid at 6 1/3 innings.

Atlanta catcher Joey Bart hit a two-run home run off Dennis Santana with two outs in the eighth and the Braves won 3-0.

The 24-year-old Jones hasn’t thrown more than 81 pitches in eight starts since returning May 20 after missing all of last season following ulnar collateral ligament internal brace surgery on May 21, 2025.

“It was fun. Felt good the whole game. It was just fun playing baseball,” Jones said. “It does suck. Something’s cool coming on, but I’m on what? My eighth start off of surgery? I completely understand it, and it is what it is.”

Pirates manager Don Kelly said Jones was originally pegged for five innings, but was efficient enough to warrant a sixth.

“It’s a tough one, man,” Kelly said. “We’ve talked about it before. Health is the most important thing. Winning the game and then personal accomplishments (is) third. Wanting guys to stay healthy is the No. 1 thing with these guys because we need Jared for the rest of the season throwing the ball like that.”

Jones started the game with 10 straight fastballs, five topping 100 mph. His bid was nearly ended by Bart in the third inning, but a long fly ball to left off Jones’ slider was grabbed by Bryan Reynolds at the wall. He then struck out five of the next seven batters.

“I felt like I threw it where I needed to, except for the Joey Bart at-bat where he almost took me yard,” Jones said. “But outside of that, yeah, everything felt great today.”

A second-round pick in the 2020 MLB draft, Jones is 7-9 with a 4.19 ERA in two seasons in the majors. He lowered his ERA this season to 4.37 from 5.28 entering Wednesday.

Jones said he didn’t entertain attempting to complete the perfect game.

“Not with the pitch count,” he said. “Not really ever expecting to go nine right now, so that was never in my head.”

The Miami Marlins faced a nearly identical dilemma on Sunday when Eury Pérez used 92 pitches make it through seven perfect innings with eight strikeouts in his third start back from a leg strain. He was pulled for Lake Bachar to start the eighth and the Marlins allowed eight runs to the Athletics in the final two innings, but held on to win 9-8.

On Wednesday, Jones became the first pitcher in Pirates history to depart with a perfect game intact after at least six innings.

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“His health is too important,” Kelly said. “Having not even approached anything like nine innings, and at 80 pitches, in essence, already, you’re looking at 120 coming off of surgery. There was no way.”

There have been 24 perfect games in major league history. Most recently, Domingo Germán struck out nine in an 11-0 win for the New York Yankees against the Athletics at Oakland Coliseum on June 28, 2023.

On May 25, the Houston Astros provided the latest of 327 no-hitters in the history of the majors. Tatsuya Imai walked four and struck out two in the first six innings of a 9-0 win against the Texas Rangers before Steven Okert walked one in his only inning inning and Alimber Santa was perfect in the final two.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb