Comeback story not in the Cards
When Daniel Poncedeleon of the St. Louis Cardinals was pulled after 116 pitches Monday night against the Cincinnati Reds, he had thrown a game to remember. In his major league debut, he had not surrendered a hit through seven innings, capping an epic comeback from a grave injury.
Then the Cardinals lost the game.
In this era of pitch counts, it is not uncommon for starters to be pulled, even when holding the other team hitless. And sometimes their teams go on to lose. It happened in April to Jarlin Garcia of the Miami Marlins and last year to Ariel Miranda of the Seattle Mariners and Sean Manaea of the Oakland Athletics. It happened to Steve Barber of the Baltimore Orioles in 1966 and again in 1967.
Leading 1-0 after the seventh inning, Poncedeleon was yanked for a pinch-hitter Monday. He told reporters he was fine with the decision.
“First of all, I’m a liability at the plate. I struck out twice looking,” he said. “A one-run game, needed a big at-bat. I 100 per cent understand. Plus I was 100-something pitches in.”
But with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Bud Norris gave up a homer, then loaded the bases and finally gave up a walk-off single to Dilson Herrera and the Reds won.
Despite the loss, Poncedeleon’s story is a compelling one. In May 2017, he was pitching for the Class AAA Memphis Redbirds when he was hit in the temple by a line drive. Emergency brain surgery followed, and physicians described the injury as life-threatening. He spent weeks in intensive care.
He returned to Memphis this season with a carbon inset in his hat to protect his head and was 9-3 with a 2.15 ERA when he was called up to the big leagues at age 26.
Norris was understandably upset about giving away the game.
“You never want to have this, especially the way Ponce threw the ball,” he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “This is a tough one.”