Cody Ponce left his first start as a Toronto Blue Jay on a cart in the third inning after appearing to sustain a leg injury.
The right-hander was making his first MLB start since 2021 and went down in the top of the third with one out while attempting to field a ground ball off the bat of Jake McCarthy. He was attended to by the training staff and eventually limped to a cart, which drove him off the field.
The Rockies scored a run on the play as McCarthy’s slow grounder cashed Kyle Karros from third base, making it 1-0. Right-hander Louis Varland came on in relief of Ponce and got out of the inning to preserve the one-run deficit.
The 31-year-old Ponce was signed to a three-year, $30 million deal by Toronto this past winter after winning the MVP award last year in the Korea Baseball Organization. He was 17-1 with a 1.89 ERA in 29 starts last season for the Hanwha Eagles.
He had a 0.66 ERA this spring in five outings with 12 strikeouts in 13.2 innings pitched.
Ponce began his MLB career with the Pittsburgh Pirates and pitched parts of 2020 and 2021 before heading to Japan and then eventually Korea.