Right-hander Cody Ponce, who accompanied the team on the trip as part of the taxi squad, will start one of the games of Thursday’s doubleheader against the St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton said.
The Pirates are playing the games at Busch Stadium to make up for the postponements of Aug. 10-11, when the Cardinals had a covid-19 outbreak.
Shelton didn’t specify which seven-inning game Ponce will pitch, although righty Chad Kuhl (1-1, 2.84 ERA) is scheduled to start the 3:15 p.m. game against Kwang Hyun Kim (1-0, 1.69). The Cardinals have Johan Oviedo (0-0, 3.60) scheduled to start the second game.
Ponce (0-1, 5.40) has appeared in two games in relief this season, allowing one hit and one run in one-third of an inning in his major-league debut Aug. 2 in a 2-1 loss at the Chicago Cubs and giving up a pair of solo home runs in three innings in a 6-5 win over the Minnesota Twins on Aug. 6 at PNC Park. Ponce threw 48 pitches in the second appearance.
Shelton said the Pirates sent him to their alternate training site in Altoona so that he could stretch out for a start, knowing they would be playing 15 games in a 13-day span after two series were postponed.
“When we sent Ponce out, we sent him out to be built up, because he had been in the bullpen and we knew we were going to need this start,” Shelton said. “So we wanted somebody that had some length. With Trop (Nick Tropeano), honestly the fact that we got four innings and 40 pitches (Tuesday) night, because of the fact he hadn’t thrown very much, we didn’t know where he was going to be, so it was an opportunity to get Ponce stretched out and give him a start.”
