Ponce pounces on spot-start opportunity

PITTSBURGH -- Cody Ponce made his season debut on Tuesday night for the Pirates, and while things didn’t end his way in a 4-3 loss to the Cubs at PNC Park, he got some reps at the Major League level in the spot start.

Those scattered opportunities for starters will likely be a theme for the Pirates this season.

“We’re going to start to try to find ways to integrate into our rotation and provide opportunities,” manager Derek Shelton, “and we felt today was a good opportunity to integrate Cody in there.”

Like No. 12 prospect Miguel Yajure earlier this season and others who will follow, Ponce lined up well to be recalled on Tuesday. With Trevor Cahill on the 10-day injured list, the Pirates had another spot to fill besides Chad Kuhl’s, which has been firmly taken for the time being by Wil Crowe.

Ponce worked through four innings with only one run allowed -- a solo homer from Joc Pederson in the third -- while inducing a lot of contact outs. It’s part of a strategy he’s been refining with Triple-A pitching coach Joel Hanrahan to get back to his low fastball and combat the adjustment made league-wide to the high fastball.

“It's just a little Tom and Jerry game -- back and forth and learning how to go both up and down -- and that's been kind of my thing now,” Ponce said.

Then the contact got a little harder vs. two lefties, though with some tough luck added. Pederson launched a second homer for two runs on a slider that landed below the zone, then Javier Báez squared up a two-strike curveball nearly in the dirt. That set up Rizzo, who hit an RBI single against the shift to give the Cubs a one-run lead.

“I guess that it's baseball,” Ponce said. “We're all going to have our good days and our bad days. You know what? I made the pitches that I wanted to make.”

Good day or bad day, the outing gave Ponce the opportunity to stay in tune with the Major League game, and he won’t be the only one to benefit from the strategy.

It has already played itself out with Yajure this season. He was left off the Opening Day roster after debuting as a reliever in 2020 with the Yankees, but the Pirates called him up on April 21 for his first MLB start. He struggled, allowing four runs in 4 1/3 innings, but the adjustments from that outing paid off in his second start on May 14 against the Giants, who he limited to one hit and no runs in five innings.

“What we’re trying to do with Miguel -- and maybe others as well, as we get into the season -- is pick spots to bring guys in and give them a chance to make Major League starts,” general manager Ben Cherington said on his show on 93.7 The Fan last Sunday. “Hopefully, there’s a dual benefit to that, that they get that experience and development opportunity, but also, occasionally, we’ll use that to pick a time to push back the rest of the guys to give [them] an extra day of rest.”

Cherington also mentioned Chase De Jong as a potential option to see a spot start in the coming weeks. He was in all likelihood unavailable this go-around, as he pitched six innings on Saturday, but he’s fared well at Triple-A with a 3.60 ERA after a strong 1.88 ERA in Spring Training.

The Pirates will likely not keep Ponce up for very long. The reality is his spot was created through injury, and Cahill is not expected to miss a ton of time. But Pittsburgh hopes that the experience he got on Tuesday -- in addition to his five outings in 2020 -- will help him grow into a useful piece in the club’s pitching plans.

“Everything is great. We're not upset at anything at all,” Ponce said coming out of the outing. “I went out there, our goal was for me to pound the strike zone as much as I can and get early outs, and it is what it is."