With two outs in the ninth inning of the final game before the All-Star break, trailing by a run in one of the biggest games of the year to date, the team with the most athletic, electric group of rookies and sophomores in baseball sent to the plate a 39-year-old guy who had spent 10 of the previous 11 months recuperating from a severe shoulder injury.
In other words, the Cincinnati Reds had exactly who they wanted at the plate in that spot.
And the fact that Joey Votto struck out might have been the most surprising part of that whole scenario, considering what the former MVP has done since returning June 19 from his nearly year-long stay on the injured list – albeit, his accomplishments often lost in the long shadows and din of the spectacle of Elly De La Cruz and the other new kids in the flock.