Joey Votto

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CINCINNATI a Everything was a mess Sunday night for Henry Rodriguez. His nerves, the slop at his feet, the loaded bases behind him a all of it, in every way, an utter, complete mess, made worse by the man knocking the weighted donut off his bat in the on-deck circle. Walking to the plate with two outs in the ninth inning, already with two home runs and now carrying a chance to end the Washington Nationalsa long, wet and miserable day in the most gut-wrenching fashion, was Joey Votto. Read full article >>

Joey Votto hit a grand slam in the ninth inning for his third home run of the game, rallying the host Cincinnati Reds to a rain-delayed 9-6 victory over the Washington Nationals on Sunday.

Joey Votto’s RBI double with two outs broke a scoreless tie in the ninth, Brandon Phillips then drove in Votto with a bloop single, and the visiting Cincinnati Reds held on to defeat the host Milwaa|

Votto hit his first home runs since April 30, and his grand slam in the ninth inning gave Cincinnati a win over the Washington Nationals.

Joey Votto gave the Washington Nationals one more heartache in a week already full of them.

Joey Votto is finally swinging like an MVP again.

1. In todayas Post, I wrote this column about how the Matt Cain extension impacts the Yankees. Hint: More and more teams are signing their best young starters long term, which means fewer elite starters are reaching free agency in their prime, which means you better be developing good starting pitching. This is especially true now for the Yankees, who have gone frugal at a time when more and more teams have shown a willingness to spend big.

That trend is likely to continue since the Yankees are trying to drop under the $189 million luxury-tax threshold in 2014 to gain financial benefits that are part of the new collective bargaining agreement. Meanwhile, fueled by local TV money, in particular, more teams are becoming part of the big-spending brotherhood.

For example, it is no longer outlandish that more than $330 million could be guaranteed in a day a as it was yesterday a and the Yankees have nothing to do with it. Cincinnati gave a 10-year, $225 million extension to Joey Votto and the Giantsa extension for Cain covered five years at $112.5 million.

When Mark Teixeira signed his eight-year, $180 million contract with the Yankees after the 2008 season, he was the highest-paid first baseman in history by both total dollars and average annual value ($22.5 million). Now he has the fifth-highest annual value behind Ryan Howard, Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder and Votto. Those last three a Pujols, Fielder and Votto a have joined Alex Rodriguez in the $200 million club. International stars Yoenis Cespedes and Yu Darvish signed with hardly a peep from the Yankees.

There was a time when the Yankees had signed four of the five largest contracts ever given (A-Rod, Derek Jeter, Teixeira and Sabathia) and traded for the fifth, the original 10-year deal signed by A-Rod with Texas. Now the deals for Pujols, Votto, Fielder and Joe Mauer are mixed into the top nine.

The Yankees, of course, remain a financial heavyweight. But they no longer are in a class by themselves when it comes to spending.

2. Next yearas free-agent starting pitching class is not particularly good with Cole Hamels and Zack Greinke standing out. A very unscientific survey of executives thought it was much more likely Greinke would stay put in Milwaukee than Hamels would stay in Philadelphia.

What will be interesting is how intact subsequent free-agent starting classes will remain. Right now, Chris Carpenter, Dan Haren, Josh Johnson, Tim Lincecum and Adam Wainwright can all be free agents after the 2013 campaign.

But the one to really keep your eyes on is the class that would have their walk year in 2014, which would be highlighted by arguably the three best starters in the game in Felix Hernandez, Clayton Kershaw and Justin Verlander with a pretty good secondary group of Josh Beckett, Justin Masterson and James Shields. Now, with new, rich ownership, the Dodgers will probably make a big pitch to keep Kershaw long term and Detroit owner Mike Ilitch has shown he is willing to spend to go for championships. Thus, he probably would do what is necessary to retain Verlander, though the righty had shown an affinity for bright lights and might want to try life outside of Detroit.

Here is where this is interesting for the New York teams. For the Mets, will they have the financial house in order enough to make a play for a dynamic ace? Their current two big-ticket items, Johan Santana and Jason Bay, will have had their contracts expire by then and the Mets will have had to make a long-term decision on David Wright.

As for the Yankees, at minimum, they want to get under the $189 million luxury-tax threshold in 2014. There are other benefits if they do it longer. But if they do it in just 2014, it would mean rather than pay a 50 percent tax on every dollar spent above the $189 million, their rate would fall to 17.5 percent in 2015 if they went over the threshold. In other words, they could go after one of those big starters (if they are truly free) and go over the threshold and not be punished nearly as severely.

3. As part of todayas column, I wrote that the season within the season was to watch how Phil Hughes, Ivan Nova and Michael Pineda did in the majors, and close-to-the-majors prospects such as Manny Banuelos, Dellin Betances, David Phelps, Adam Warren, Graham Stoneburner and Brett Marshall did in the minors. Because the Yankees need several of those cost-effective youngsters to come through as a way to keep from having to delve into spending big on starting pitching.

There will be one other season within the season having to do with the Yankee older starters: Freddy Garcia, Hiroki Kuroda and Andy Pettitte.

If any or all of them pitches well this year, the Yankees wouldnat mind bringing back one or more on a one-year contract. Because one year mitigates risk. It also keeps the Yankees from spending any long-term money as they keep the 2014 luxury-tax threshold in mind.

Ivan Nova has lost his magic touch, and the Yankees still are searching to find theirs.

After the young right-hander was knocked around for five runs in six innings, the Yankeesa ninth-inning rally fell a run short in a 6-5 loss to the Reds yesterday in The Bronx.

aWe just didnat get that last hit we needed,a manager Joe Girardi said. aIt was good to be able to come back, but itas frustrating to get so close.a

In years past, this was the kind of game the Yankees seemed destined to win. They came up with a pair of runs in the ninth, knocking Reds closer Sean Marshall out of the game after Jayson Nixas RBI single brought them within a run with one out.

Derek Jeter followed by grounding into a fielderas choice to third, barely beating the relay from second to avoid the double play and extend the game. But Curtis Granderson mustered just a slow grounder to first, and the Yankees lost for the fourth time in their last five games.

The end wasnat the only disappointment for the Yankees, who saw Nova finish with a career-high 12 strikeouts. That impressive number was overshadowed by his slider that Joey Votto hit out for a three-run shot in the fifth inning after the Yankees had tied the game at 2-2 in the fourth.

aI donat care about the strikeouts,a Nova said. aI donat like the way Iam pitching right now. Iam making a lot of mistakes.a

None was more damaging than the Votto homer, the sixth Nova has given up in his past four games.

aIam just falling behind hitters, and then Iave got to go to the middle [of the plate],a Nova said. aWhen you make a mistake, they hit it hard.a

Though Nova suffered a sprained right ankle in his last start in Baltimore, he said he was not bothered by the injury a and the dozen strikeouts back that up.

aIt was really just the one home run to Votto that hurt us,a catcher Russell Martin said.

But that was the kind of fatal blow that either didnat happen to Nova last season, when he finished 16-4, or if it did, it was something the Yankees would overcome.

Martin remains confident Nova still will get results.

aThereas not much difference between last year and this year,a Martin said of Nova (4-2). aMaybe his fastball is up a little bit more.a

Novaas troubles are symbolic of what has been ailing the rest of the team this season.

Whether it was ugly starting pitching early in the season or the recent failure to hit with runners in scoring position, the Yankees have been missing something throughout the year. That has them just two games over .500 nearly a quarter through the season.

The ninth inning provided some glimmer the old explosive Bombers were returning.

With the Yankees down 6-3, Raul Ibanez started the inning with his second double of the game and scored on Nick Swisheras single to center. After Martin struck out looking, Andruw Jones delivered a single that sent Swisher to third.

With regular first baseman Mark Teixeira was unavailable because of illness, Nix had to hit and delivered his third hit of the day, knocking in Swisher.

But that proved to be the final hit of the day. Jose Arredondo came on to retire Jeter and Granderson, who was ahead in the count 3-0 before grounding out.

aMaybe what we were able to do in the ninth will turn things around,a Girardi said.

It canat come soon enough.

dan.martin@nypost.com

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