For the second time in a week, a young pitcher in Major League Baseball was lifted late in a game while working on a perfect game.

Unlike with the Miami Marlins when they were still able to beat the Athletics when Eury Perez was lifted after seven perfect innings, the Pittsburgh Pirates were not as lucky with their Jared Jones decision on Wednesday night. 

The Pirates lifted Jones after six perfect innings and only 77 pitches in what turned out to be a 3-0 loss to the Atlanta Braves. 

It was also an historic loss. 

Pirates have historic loss after pulling Jared Jones with six perfect innings

How historic was it?

In the modern era, he is the only pitcher to pitch at least six innings, retire every batter he faced during his outing and not get the win. 

That's largely because for most of the modern era any pitcher that had thrown at least six perfect innings would get an opportunity to keep going and keep pitching. It might not always result in an actual perfect game, or even a no-hitter, but there's a good chance that at that point it would at least produce a win.

But because the Pirates' lineup was unable to score a run, and because their consistently woeful bullpen allowed three runs in its three innings of work, the Pirates ended up losing the game.

The question now comes back to why the Pirates had such a quick hook with Jones dominating the way he was.

It all comes back to the organization protecting its major investment and wanting to protect a young arm coming back from surgery.

Jones missed the entirety of the 2025 season and the first two-and-a-half months of the 2026 season due to elbow surgery, and the Pirates have been consistently limiting him to between 70 and 80 pitches per outing. 

Wednesday was his eighth start of the season since returning (and by far his best). 

The decision is likely to be panned by critics and old-school baseball minds, and maybe it should be. Perfect games are one of the rarest things that can happen in a baseball game, and it used to be unheard of for a pitcher to be lifted in this situation. 

But given what teams have invested in pitchers, and given the injury rate of pitchers, it is understandable as to why teams are overly cautious. 

That doesn't necessarily make it right. Or smart. Or what fans want to see. It might even be an insult to baseball and the pursuit of greatness. 

But the Marlins need Perez to be healthy for a playoff race and the long-term. 

The Pirates need the same from Jones.

These are long-term investments and long-term pieces that these teams are going to count on for years. That is always going to carry more weight than one game, no matter how dominant it might be.