Ahead of Monday’s series opener in San Francisco, a struggling Joey Votto spoke to reporters about his need to hit “gap balls, balls off the wall, balls over the fence.”
Votto wasn’t talking about “balls in McCovey Cove,” but he hit one in the sixth inning of the Reds’ 3-0 win over the Giants at Oracle Park.
Between Votto’s first big hit of the season and Jesse Winker’s triumphant return from a calf problem with a two-run homer in the third, a Reds lineup that was initially rolling looks deeper than San Francisco Bay. And getting Wade Miley’s second scoreless outing in as many starts, 3 2/3 scoreless innings from relief from Tejay Antone and first save by Lucas Sims certainly doesn’t hurt either.
However, Votto has always been a point of fixation for this Reds offense. And for the first week and a half of the season, that point of fixation was a point of frustration. Votto started this series with one of the lowest slugging percentages (.162) and OPS figures (.367) of any major league mainstream, despite its best Statcast-tracked hard-hit rate (39.4%) since 2016.
“I’m not where I want to be,” Votto said ahead of Monday’s game. “The ball has to go over the fence, and I haven’t done that yet.”
Votto made an adjustment to his stance last year to hit the ball with more authority and sacrifice some of his elite discipline for power. But last season, pitchers threw him fastballs 61.1% of the time.
This year it was only 49%.
“Not only that, of those fastballs, most were higher in the zone,” said Votto. “I have to burn the other options that pitchers have, and I have to burn higher fastballs. And then at a certain point I get quality pitches to hit. … I just have to make that adjustment. It’ll come. If it doesn’t come, I’m in the wrong class. “
Votto certainly seemed to be in the right league when he made contact with a Jarlin García fastball that was low in the zone. The scorched 104 mph hit in the water made him the first Reds player to ever hit one in the Cove.
So that’s one for the books. But more importantly, the solo recording was good for the soul. Votto has hit 10 balls at 100 mph or more this season, but only three of them have gone for hits. Two of the outs came on Monday-evening, on a groundout in the third inning and a lineout in the eighth inning.
Poor strike luck made Votto the only Reds regularly with an below average OPS + entering Monday’s game. The Reds have the most runs scored (69) in the Majors with at least 11, and they have the highest OPS (.857) with 10 points. They’ve done it with very little contribution from a potential future Hall of Famer in Votto and with Winker, who was their best hitter in 2020, limited to just 16 at-bats so far.
So while Monday’s victory did not involve – or require – an offensive blast, the sources of the lone violation were most welcomed. Winker is off the couch and Votto is off the schnide. That bodes well for a dangerous offense on the part of Reds.
‘It’s really important [for Votto] to just stick with it and not change anything and just keep hitting the ball hard as it is, ”said manager David Bell.
Votto has received little relief from his high success rate.
“As far as it’s hard to get rid of me, I should do that,” he said. “I made that change last year. That change has already been discussed. I want to do that. But the ball has to go over the fence, the ball has to go into the opening. “