The Week In Baseball: Week 4
Apr 21, 2019, 4:42 PM | Updated: 4:42 pm
(Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
(Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
A couple of firsts for Joey Votto
Joey Votto has been in the MLB for 13 seasons so you’d be hard pressed to find something he hasn’t done yet. Remarkably, Votto managed to have career-firsts twice this week.
On Wednesday against the Dodgers, Votto popped out to first baseman Cody Bellinger to end the eighth inning. While it seems innocent enough, the pop out was the first time in Votto’s 6,828 plate appearances he has popped out to the first baseman. While first base is off the list, he still hasn’t popped out to the catcher or the pitcher in his career.
Thursday night Votto had his second first of the week, though this one less impressive. He hit lead off for the Reds and hit a home run to start the game off of Chris Paddock. The home run marked the first time Votto had hit a lead off home run. This one is slightly less impressive because it was just the third time in his career he had hit lead off.
Look at these defensive plays
Christian Yelich won’t slow down
The reigning NL MVP Christian Yelich has wasted no time picking up from where he left off last season. In the first 23 games of the season, Yelich is batting .329 with an OPS of 1.152 with 13 home runs.
Those 13 home runs put Yelich just one away from Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols’ record of most home runs before May 1. Yelich has more than a week left to break the record.
Although he finished 0-2 with two walks against the Dodgers on Sunday, Yelich tore the ball off the cover this week hitting eight home runs while batting .455.
Mike Trout is still the undisputed best player in baseball but Yelich might be making a very good case for being the second-best.
