CINCINNATI • Less than 15 months after a line drive fractured his skull, threatened his life and sent him from emergency surgery into the unknown, Daniel Poncedeleon turned his major-league debut Monday into a stirring, unerring beginning for him that once seemed unimaginable.
Poncedeleon became the first Cardinal in more than 100 years to throw seven no-hit innings in his first start and, his pitch count exhausted, he turned a 1-0 lead and a no-hitter over to the bullpen for the final two innings. The no-hitter vanished in the eighth, the lead in the ninth, and the game fell apart, decidedly, on the final swing.