LOS ANGELES (AP) — A remarkable baseball streak ended Wednesday when Joey Votto innocuously popped out to first base.
The slugger somehow had made 6,827 plate appearances over 13 seasons with the Reds without ever popping out to first. He finally did it in Cincinnati’s 3-2 loss at Dodger Stadium, fouling out to Cody Bellinger to end the eighth.
Votto had played 1,591 games in a career that began in late 2007 without ever popping up to first.
The six-time All-Star first baseman is a career .310 hitter, always showing strong plate discipline and rarely wasting at-bats. Votto had popped up only 88 previous times in his career, including only seven popups from 2010-18.
Dodgers reliever Pedro Baez induced the popup on a belt-high 3-1 outside changeup.