Fear Jose Peraza Pitch To Joey Votto

Rarely will a manager intentionally walk a batter in front of Joey Votto in fact the Reds' first baseman recently surpassed Johnny Bench as the Reds' career leader for intentional walks.

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Arizona Diamondback's manager went against conventional wisdom and walked Jose Peraza with a base open and two outs in the bottom of the eighth.   Billy Hamilton had just singled to score Tucker Barnhart and stole second base.  Torey Luvullo, who won the BBWAA Manager of the Year Award last season, ordered Peraza passed with Votto in the on deck circle.

Votto proved why it was not a good idea by lining a single to left field off left-handed pitcher T.J. McFarland that scored Hamilton.  Votto had a .239 batting average against left-handed hitters but has a career batting average of .295 against them.

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Luvullo's decision was based more on his pitcher's strengths than Votto's 2018 deficiencies.

"It is the balance that I walk through every single time I need to make those decisions," Luvullo said. "I just felt like with T.J.'s ability to get the ball underneath the hands of a left-handed hitter, it would be a tough approach for Joey Votto."

Votto got a ball out over the plate that he was able to hit on a line to left.

"I was evaluating the matchups in my mind and rehearsing what it would look like if we executed the pitch," Luvullo said.  "I focus more on that.  Historic match up over the years, I'm not so focused on.  I know Joey Votto is hitting .230 or .228 or something like that against left-handed pitching.  I focus on that. I focus on what my imagination is telling me based on how it would play out if we executed."

"It's hard to walk somebody to get to Joey Votto.  I'm not going to lie," Luvullo said.  "I wanted T.J. to be in the best situation to be successful.  I sacrificed that to pitch to Joey Votto."