It’s been a strange first two weeks of the season for Cincinnati Reds outfielder Jesse Winker.
He missed four games because of the flu, which took so much out of him that he didn’t participate in baseball activities for three days. When he returned to the lineup, he was limited to five innings because of cramps in both calves, then he didn’t start for the next two games.
Through it all, the one constant is that he hits. Oh yes, he can hit. Winker crushed a two-run homer to center in the third inning and that was all the run support that Wade Miley and Tejay Antone needed in a 3-0 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Monday at Oracle Park.