Joey Votto homered in his first at-bat in the opening inning and the Toronto Blue Jays played to a 5-5 draw against the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday in preseason action.
It was one of two split-squad games on the day for the Blue Jays, who defeated the Minnesota Twins 9-4 in Dunedin, Fla. Votto, from Toronto, made his first appearance in a Jays uniform after signing a minor-league deal with a spring training invite on March 9. The 40-year-old joined Toronto after 17 years with Cincinnati, where he was a six-time all-star and earned National League MVP honours in 2010. Votto only played the first inning, however.
“I accidentally stepped on a bat in the dugout, rolled my ankle and it hurt like the dickens,” said Votto, who added that the Jays’ day off on Monday is all he needs for recovery. “So I came out of the game, but not intentionally. I was scheduled to play five innings and get three at-bats.”
Ernie Clement’s eighth-inning homer, followed by Garrett Spain’s run-scoring single in the ninth pulled Toronto (11-11) even against Philadelphia. Starter José Berríos had two strikeouts and surrendered six hits and four runs in 4⅔ innings. Rodolfo Castro had two runs batted in for Philadelphia (8-9). Zack Wheeler struck out two batters, walked one and gave up three hits and one run in four innings as the starter.
On Saturday in Tampa, Steward Berroa and Daulton Varsho had two hits each as the Blue Jays dropped a 10-9 decision to the New York Yankees in spring-training action.
New York scored five runs in the fifth inning to take an 8-1 advantage. But Toronto countered with eight runs of its own over the next three innings, including five in the eighth, for a 9-8 lead. However, the Yankees scored twice in the bottom of the eighth for the 10-9 advantage. Berroa and Bo Bichette both homered for Toronto. J.C. Escarra and Giancarlo Stanton also did for New York.