Something has clearly been up with Joey Votto.
He’d gone just 4 for 33 over his last 10 games played, with zero of said hits being homers. In fact, two of the last balls in play he produced were on check-swings that dinked balls down the 3B line, and I’m honestly having a hard time remembering the last time he truly squared a ball up.
So, when he was abruptly removed from the first game of yesterday’s doubleheader between the Cincinnati Reds and Los Angeles Angels, it raised an eyebrow. When he didn’t feature at all in the latter game, well, it became clearer that whatever was ‘up’ was probably about to be addressed.