TODAY’S GAME
Reds at Indians, 7:05 p.m., FS Ohio, 700, 1410
Joey Votto sometimes unleashes a string of expletives after a poor at-bat. On Monday, he pulled his jersey over his mouth as he swore up a storm after striking out in the first inning. Of course, fans in the first rows behind the plate or the Reds dugout — many of them children — didn’t need to know how to read lips to hear the Reds first baseman.
“They can hear him,” said Reds manager Dusty Baker in the postgame press conference.
“They can hear him in the press box,” a sports writer said.
Votto’s actual quote from the field isn’t fit for a newspaper, but he translated after the game.
“Just not a very good at-bat for me, personally,” he said. “I was very, very, very not happy.”
Baker would rather him show that in another way.
“I have a son that idolizes him,” Baker said. “Sometimes the open display of displeasure is not a good example, whether you come through or not later. Joey’s the face of baseball, so I’d like to see him temper it a little bit.”
As he often does, Votto made up for it later, smashing a two-run home run to left in the eighth inning to beat the Indians 4-2.
In April, fans questioned Votto’s bat, even as he kept getting on base more often than anyone in baseball. Votto has put those doubts to rest with a marvelous may.
Entering Tuesday night’s game against the Indians, Votto led the National League in hitting (.351), hits (67), walks (43), intentional walks (nine) and on-base percentage (.475). In his last 26 games, he’s hitting .416. He’s reached base safety in 48 of 51 appearances.
Votto had seven multi-hit games in April and has 13 in May. In the last 13 games, he has raised his average 41 points.
Pitchers can’t really pitch around Votto because Brandon Phillips bats right behind him and ranks fourth in baseball with 43 RBIs. Earlier in the season, Votto may have been walked with Shin-Soo Choo on third base and one out in the eighth — that was the situation Monday. But Indians manager Terry Francona chose to pitch to Votto.
“I don’t second-guess another manager,” Baker said. “You’ve got to take a shot at some point in the game. Joey won that time.”
Votto doesn’t always measure his performances by the success of the at-bat.
“I try to think about whether I gave away any at-bats,” Votto said, “and whether my focus and intensity is at its highest every single at-bat and whether I prepared well today and whether I got better today. Those are the things I think about it. If I hit four rockets and I go 0-for-4, and I hit four rollovers and I go 4-for-4, you’re more likely to see me angry after the 4-for-4 than the 0-for-4 because I think I got better and I did what I wanted to do.”
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