CHICAGO – Joey Votto told people at the end of last season that his adjustments at the plate would lead to big results this season.
He repeated it throughout the offseason. He remained confident in spring training. He kept the faith when he was out for a month with a broken thumb.
So, no, he’s not surprised by how well he’s hitting. It’s just everybody else left in awe. Votto hit two solo home runs in Tuesday’s 7-4 victory against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. If that wasn’t enough, he made arguably his best defensive play of the season to save a run.
"I think of it more like it’s about time," Votto said. "I expect to play like this truly," Votto said. "This is not outside of my expectations."
Amir Garrett on Javier Baez:'Whatever you preach, you should stand on'
The only thing Votto didn’t do was sell popcorn, but he did bring down a young Reds fan from his seat several rows behind the Reds’ dugout at the end of an inning to hand him a ball and give him a fist bump.
With one out in the bottom of the third inning, Votto helped bail Vladimir Gutierrez out of a jam with two runners in scoring position. Votto reached over the tarp in foul territory for an out, which sits against the stands in shallow right field, then spun his body and tossed out Rafael Ortega at the plate.
Votto threw out Ortega by a wide margin, slapping hands with second baseman Jonathan India almost as soon as catcher Tyler Stephenson caught his throw.
"Nothing leaves me more dissatisfied than going home after poor defensive play, no matter how many hits I get," Votto said. "I would say every day I have expectations of playing good defense. I guess that play made me feel good about doing that, yeah – or excuse me, made me feel like I’m doing my job and helping the team."
It’s been four seasons since Votto finished runner-up in the National League MVP voting and this might be the most dominant he’s looked since that year. He’s homered in four consecutive games, which is a career-high. At 37, he’s the oldest National League player to homer in four straight games since Barry Bonds in 2005 (41 years old), according to STATS LLC.
Votto homered in the first and third innings against Cubs starter Adbert Alzolay. It was his 14th career multi-homer game and his first since June 29, 2017.
"I've seen it before, 2017," Amir Garrett said. "And I see the same path that he was on back then, right now. It's scary, man. It's very scary.
"He's just aging like fine wine."
Votto ended a seven-pitch at-bat in the first inning with a 419-foot, solo homer to the seats in left-center field. He dropped immediately his bat when he finished his swing because he knew exactly where it was headed. Teammates clapped from the dugout and a lot of them shot looks to each other as if they were saying, “Are you seeing this?”
After crossing home plate, Votto turned his back to the crowd, pointed to his name on the back of his jersey with his thumbs and hopped to the dugout. It was directed at Reds manager David Bell, who called him Roy from the TV show, "Ted Lasso," an aging soccer player who retired.
"Are you kidding me?" Votto said. "Have you seen me hit? Are you kidding me? I was just messing with him. It’s a good show. The new season just started July 23rd. Shout out Jason Sudeikis. Nice work."
In the third inning, Alzolay threw two pitches in the same spot. It didn’t matter they were two different pitches, one a 93-mph sinker and the other a 91-mph cutter. Votto tattooed the cutter into the right-field seats, the ball leaving his bat at 114 mph.
It was the hardest-hit ball by a Reds batter this season and the hardest hit from Votto since Statcast started collecting data in 2015.
"Even for Joey, who has had an amazing career in every way, it’s still not easy," Bell said. "Along the way, he made adjustments. He stayed with it, kept getting better and found ways to get better at this point in his career. That’s what I think is so special about it."
The Reds hit four solo homers – two from Votto, one from Jesse Winker and one from Eugenio Suárez – and they added some insurance runs in the eighth inning with back-to-back RBI doubles by Aristides Aquino and India.
Gutierrez surrendered a two-run homer to Anthony Rizzo in the first inning, Rizzo’s third homer in as many games, but he settled down and helped the bullpen by pitching 6 1/3 innings. It was the second-longest start of his young career.
Source link
