For the first time in almost three months, Joey Votto was back at the plate in a baseball game.
Votto made his first rehab appearance on Monday after the Toronto Blue Jays transferred him to the Florida Complex League.
The 40-year-old came into the game in the fifth inning, where he went hit-less in two at-bats but did record an RBI on a sacrifice fly.
The Toronto native signed a minor-league deal with the Blue Jays in March after spending 17 seasons with the Cincinnati Reds. The 40-year-old joined the Canadian team for spring training in Dunedin, Fla.
In Votto's first pre-season at-bat for the Blue Jays on March 17, he homered the very first pitch he saw from Philadelphia Phillies star Zack Wheeler. However, the excitement was short-lived as he stepped on a bat and rolled his right ankle shortly thereafter.
In May, Blue Jays manager John Schneider said that Votto prefers to take things slow to ensure he's putting himself in the best position to succeed.
"He was pretty adamant about being 100 per cent physically before he really stepped on the gas," Schneider recalled. "So, I think, out of fairness to him, (he expressed) that even when he came in, before he got hurt. It was just like, 'I want to make sure that I'm really ready before I go.'"
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