The Cincinnati Reds activated first baseman Joey Votto off the COVID-19 list prior to Friday’s road game against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Votto, 38, has been sidelined since testing positive May 3 and he was ecstatic to be able to play in the three-game series in his hometown of Toronto. It will be his first time playing in the city since 2017.

“It just gives me goosebumps. I lose sleep over (playing in Toronto),” said Votto, who started at first base and is batting fourth in Friday’s contest. “There’s great meaning to me, truly great meaning to me. I mean, between being a fan of the team and being raised in this stadium in this team’s backyard.”

The six-time All-Star and 2010 National League MVP is off to a poor start this season. Entering Friday, he had a .122 average with no homers, three RBIs and 29 strikeouts in 74 at-bats.

“I feel like with more information, it gets more complicated and starts spiraling down,” Votto said. “Really, I’ve tried to keep it really simple. … It’s such a simple, fun game. We complicate it at times.”

Votto has a .300 career average with 331 homers and 1,068 RBIs in 1,922 games over 16 seasons with Cincinnati.

Votto also tested positive for COVID-19 in March of 2021.

Meanwhile, the Reds placed left-hander Ross Detwiler on the bereavement list as well as putting infielder Brandon Drury, outfielder Albert Almora and right-handers Joel Kuhnel and Tyler Mahle on the restricted list.

Teams have been putting unvaccinated players on the restricted list prior to series in Toronto. The Canadian government requires a person to have received a second COVID-19 vaccine — or one dose of Johnson & Johnson — at least 14 days before entering the country.

Cincinnati also brought up three players from Triple-A Louisville: infielder Taylor Motter, outfielder Aristides Aquino and right-hander Graham Ashcraft.

The Reds were unable to replace Mahle because he pitched 6 1/3 innings on Thursday. MLB rules prohibit the replacement of a pitcher who worked at least four consecutive innings within three days of a series in Toronto.

–Field Level Media

After a rainout Friday night, Major League Baseball’s ERA leader Nestor Cortes will get another chance at continuing his remarkable run Saturday afternoon when the New York Yankees host the Chicago White Sox. Friday’s game will be made up Sunday as part of a single-admission doubleheader.

Cortes (2-1, 1.35 ERA), who was New York’s 36th-round pick in the 2013 draft, has allowed two earned runs in his past 16 starts. That matches teammate Luis Severino (2018) for the Yankees’ second-longest streak of allowing three runs or fewer. The record is more than a century old, 20 by Russ Ford (1910-1911).

The 5-foot-11 left-hander’s last two appearances were among the most impressive of his 23 career starts. On May 9, he came within five outs of a no-hitter against the Texas Rangers before settling for a one-hit, 7 1/3-inning performance in a 1-0 victory. He followed that Sunday afternoon by allowing one run on three hits in the longest outing of his career, eight complete innings, in a 5-1 win in Chicago.

This will mark his second career start against the White Sox.

Cortes is approaching the one-year anniversary of his second stint with the Yankees, for whom he went 5-1 with a 5.67 ERA in 33 appearances in 2019. After being traded for future considerations to the Seattle preceding the 2020 pandemic season, he was wildly ineffective for the Mariners. He returned to the Yankees May 30 and since then owns a 2.44 ERA in 133 innings.

“The chances I got, and the ability that I can go out there and pitch every five days, has been incredible for me,” Cortes said. “As long as I can go out there and compete and give my team a chance, I’m happy.”

Yankees manager Aaron Boone said, “He’s been one of the best pitchers in the game, not only this year, but even going back to last year. He’s been consistent with us, reliable and continues to get better and better.”

Cortes has allowed one earned run or less five times this season, helping him gain a slight edge over Houston’s Justin Verlander in the American League ERA race.

Cortes is pitching after a rare loss for the Yankees, who tied the score with a ninth-inning rally Thursday night in Baltimore before Lucas Luetge allowed a game-winning three-run homer to Anthony Santander in the 9-6 decision. It ended New York’s four-game winning streak and marked just their fifth loss in 28 games.

The White Sox, including their frustrating encounter against Cortes, have won 10 of their past 16. Since Sunday, Chicago won three of five in Kansas City, capping the series with a 14-hit attack Thursday in a 7-4 win that pushed the Sox back to the .500 mark for the seventh time this month.

Luis Robert hit a two-run homer and drove in four runs Thursday and is hitting .373 (28-for-75) with four homers and 14 RBIs in his past 18 games. Tim Anderson is hitting .390 (30-for-77) in his past 18 contests.

“We just take it day by day. We really try not to pay too much attention to too much stuff,” Anderson said.

Dallas Keuchel (2-3, 5.54), who took a no-decision against the Yankees last Saturday after tossing five scoreless innings, opens the series and is 4-4 with a 2.06 ERA in 10 career starts against New York.

Since getting tagged for 10 runs in an 11-1 loss at Cleveland on April 20, Keuchel owns a 2.70 ERA in his past four starts.

–Field Level Media

Josh Rojas hit a career-best three of Arizona’s season-high seven home runs, and David Peralta went deep twice, as the visiting Diamondbacks powered their way to a 10-6 win over the Chicago Cubs on Friday.

Taking advantage of a warm afternoon with the wind blowing out, the Diamondbacks hit the second-most homers for a game in club history to win their second straight — in this four-game set — after losing a season-high six in a row.

Rojas entered without a homer in 2022 and 13 in 210 career games, but made the most of the elements and drove in four runs.

Chicago native Alek Thomas (two hits) clubbed his third homer and Christian Walker went deep late for his Diamondbacks-leading 10th. Humberto Castellanos (3-1) allowed three runs, five hits and struck out five over 5 1/3 innings. He walked one.

The Cubs also set a season high with four home runs — solo shots from Patrick Wisdom, Jonathan Villar (two hits), rookie Christopher Morel (two hits) and ex-Diamondback Ildemaro Vargas. However, Kyle Hendricks (2-4) yielded season highs of seven runs and eight hits, while matching a career worst with four homers, over five innings as Chicago dropped its third straight after winning four in a row.

The 11 combined home runs tied the most in Wrigley Field history.

Arizona opened with the scoring with Jake McCarthy’s two-run single in the first. The Cubs then got to Castellanos in the second when he allowed a second homer to Wisdom in less than a week and rookie Morel’s game-tying single.

However, homers from Rojas and Peralta in the third gave Arizona the lead for good. Though Villar made it 4-3 with his 100th career home run in the bottom of that frame, Rojas’ second homer came with a man on in the fifth.

Two batters later, Peralta delivered an opposite-field drive to left-center field. Thomas made it 8-3 with his own opposite-field homer in the sixth. Rojas’ blast into the right-field bleachers opened the seventh.

Homers by Morel and Vargas in the seventh made things interesting, but the Cubs stranded the bases loaded.

–Field Level Media

Friday night’s series opener between the Chicago White Sox and Yankees was postponed due to the forecast of sustained inclement weather in the New York area.

The game will be made up Sunday at 3:05 p.m. ET as part of a single admission doubleheader ahead of the nationally televised night game.

First pitch on Friday was scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET. The Yankees announced the postponement about 3 1/2 hours before the start time.

Forecasts called for a 60 percent chance of rain at first pitch. It increased to a 100 percent chance of thunderstorms in the middle of the game.

Left-hander Nestor Cortes (2-1, 1.35 ERA), who was slated to pitch Friday, is expected to start Saturday for New York.

White Sox left-hander Dallas Keuchel (2-2, 5.54), who pitched five scoreless innings against the Yankees last weekend, is expected to start on Saturday.

The Yankees are playing their second doubleheader of the season. On May 8, they split a pair of games against the Texas Rangers.

Chicago is playing a doubleheader for the second time in less than a week. On Tuesday, the White Sox split a pair of low-scoring games in Kansas City.

–Field Level Media