"MVP Korea in South Korea." Ponce is crazy! Up to 154km → 1 inning 2K perfect in MLB's first exhibition game, exploded with favorable reviews, "It's not Ponce before."

*This content was translated by AI.

Cody Ponce (32 Toronto Blue Jays), who made a mark in the history of the Korean professional baseball (KBO) in the 2025 season and returned to the Major League, showed outstanding pitching from the first game of the Major League exhibition game. The strikeout instinct was also still there.

Ponce pitched in the 2026 MLB (major league) exhibition game against the Detroit Tigers at Merchant Stadium in Lakeland, Florida on the 26th (Korea time) and showed a perfect pitch with no hits, two strikeouts and no runs in one inning. Ponce's maximum speed of 22 pitches was 96.7 mph (154 kph).

Ponce was the best starting pitcher in the KBO League in the 2025 season. He recorded a phenomenal record of 17-1 with a 1.89 ERA in 29 regular league games. Won against all the teams except the LG Twins. In particular, he achieved a formidable record of 17 consecutive wins since the opening. He ranked first in the multiple wins, ERA, winning percentage, and strikeout categories, and even became the main character of the KBO league's Cy Young Award, "Choi Dong-won Award." Thanks to this performance, Ponce succeeded in signing a large three-year contract worth 30 million dollars (about 44.3 billion won) with Toronto ahead of the 2026 season.

This was Ponce's first exhibition game in the Major League this season. Both content and results were overwhelming. Ponce took the lead against Meadows, the first batter, by hitting a 95-mile fastball (about 153 kilometers) from the first pitch. It was a close game with a full count and as many as 11 pitches, but he struck out swinging with a 92.2 mile cutter. Even the follow-up hitter McGonigle struck out swinging with a sharp cutter and a large chain-up combination. In the match against Jermai Jones, who will wear the South Korean uniform at the World Baseball Classic (WBC) in March, he induced an ordinary third-base grounder in five pitches to end the inning.

Local media praised Ponce. After watching Ponce's pitch, reporter Mitch Mannon of The Athletic, a U.S. sports media outlet, posted on his SNS, "Since his Major League debut, Ponce has thrown only two balls over 95 miles in the first two seasons (2020 and 2021 seasons). But in this spring camp, the first three balls all exceeded 95 miles. If you don't know, it's not the old Ponce," he wrote.

Canadian SportsNet reporter Ben Nicholson-Smith also released an interview with Toronto manager John Schneider ahead of the game, saying, "Ponce will join the starting rotation in the regular league. I'm not a player competing for a major league roster. This is why we recruited Ponce, and the reason we contacted him was also because of the starting lineup," he said.

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*This content was translated by AI.