Joey Votto’s amazing streak comes to an end

Joey Votto was oh so close to tying a record set by Ted Williams.

Joey Votto is undoubtedly one of baseball’s most underappreciated hitters, and he almost did something that hasn’t been done since 1948 on Wednesday.

Votto finished Wednesday’s game 1-for-4, reaching base only once and officially ending his streak of 20 consecutive games reaching base multiple times. No, that is not a typo.

Ted Williams owns the record by doing it in 21 consecutive games.

Votto was stranded on deck in the top of the ninth inning, and the Cubs subsequently scored on a walk-off wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth.

How does someone reach base multiple times in 20 straight games? You do it with a slash line of .316/.448/.600, which is just absurd. Votto is going to end up with more RBI than strikeouts this year, and he’s going to walk more times than he strikes out for the second time in three years.

He’s hit .300 or better in all but one full season he’s played, excluding 2014 when he only played 62 games. The amazing part is that he probably won’t come close to winning MVP solely because the Reds are awful.

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It’s hard for one man to make that big a difference to their team’s record in baseball, and Votto shouldn’t be at fault for it.

Aside from Votto’s outrageous numbers at the plate, he’s also provided us with some great moments. One of those came just this Monday when he picked up a foul ball and launched it out of the stadium. What’s not to love about Joey Votto?