Ponce de Leon allowed four earned runs on four hits and three walks across five innings in a Grapefruit League win over the Marlins on Thursday. He struck out four.
The right-hander, who stretched out to 71 pitches, was more hittable than in any of his three previous trips to the mound this spring, but Ben Fredrickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports Ponce de Leon was experimenting with a faster tempo and a move to the third-base side of the rubber. While the latter seemed to help him with location, Frederickson reports the former seemed to affect him during his one truly troublesome frame, the third. "I think I should have slowed down maybe a bit in that three-run inning," Ponce de Leon said. "It was kind of playing catch up, breath-wise. My delivery just felt off."