Watching any given baseball game, you might see something you’ve never seen before. Cincinnati Reds star Joey Votto provided that during the team’s Opening Day game against the Atlanta Braves on Thursday night.
In the top of the fifth inning, Votto popped out to Atlanta pitcher Max Fried. On the surface, that may not seem earth-shattering. But it was the 8,131st plate appearance in Votto’s illustrious career. In the 8,130 prior appearances, he’d never popped out to the pitcher.
Votto’s rare out drew a big reaction from MLB fans following the game.
https://twitter.com/skinnytalls/status/1512245018215526404
https://twitter.com/PowerHourSam/status/1512245083952889859
https://twitter.com/skinnytalls/status/1512245018215526404
Of course, there’s one elephant in the room that must be addressed. In the scorebooks, this will go down as a P-1, or a pop-up to the pitcher. But you’d hardly be blamed for not thinking of it as a pop-up to the pitcher on sight alone.
The ball was actually a pop-up to third base. Normally, that ball would be caught by the third baseman or maybe, the catcher. Against this defense, though, the pitcher was the man to make the play.
If this ends up being the only pop-out to the pitcher in Votto’s career, he’ll be able to use that asterisk for the rest of this life. But he can no longer say that one of his at-bats has never resulted in a P-1.
Still, it was one heck of a run.