Reds first baseman Joey Votto has been a man possessed, leading all MLB sluggers with nine homers since the All-Star break. The former National League MVP stayed scorching hot Thursday afternoon at Wrigley Field, extending his club-record home run streak to six games, the longest we’ve seen in MLB since Paul Goldschmidt’s six-game tear for St. Louis in 2019.
Votto, who isn’t necessarily known for his power (he’s reached the 30-homer plateau just twice since debuting in 2007), entered Thursday with a remarkable seven round-trippers in his last 15 at-bats. Alec Mills proved no match for Votto, who made the Cubs hurler pay by bombing his first-inning fastball into oblivion, clearing the ivy in right field with room to spare.
The Reds, coming off a rare playoff appearance in 2020, have hit the ball with authority this year, leading the National League in hits while trailing only the Dodgers in runs scored. Votto is up to 20 homers for the season, his most since 2017, when he finished runner-up to Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton in NL MVP voting. A six-time All-Star and former Gold Glove recipient, the 37-year-old Toronto native ranks second among active players in career walks (1,255), fifth in hits (1,981) and seventh in runs scored (1,079).
Votto has a chance Friday to become only the eighth big-leaguer to homer in seven consecutive games and the first to do it since Toronto’s Kendrys Morales in 2018. The MLB record belongs to Ken Griffey Jr., Don Mattingly and Dale Long, who each went yard in eight straight games.
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