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.
Miley pitched five scoreless innings – he has yet to allow a run this year – and Antone nearly did the rest, combining on a two-hit shutout as the Reds took their series opener against a Giants team that entered Monday on a four-game winning streak.
Antone was one out from completing the rare four-inning save. Lucas Sims entered with two outs and a runner on second base in the bottom of the ninth inning and retired Evan Longoria for his first career save.
Winker, unaffected by his absences in the lineup, has eight hits in 15 at-bats (.533 batting average). He’s had a multi-hit game in three of his four starts.
The Reds didn’t have a hit in their first trip through the lineup against Giants right-hander Aaron Sanchez, but Tucker Barnhart reached on a four-pitch walk in the third inning. With two outs, Winker saw a 92-mph sinker over the heart of the plate. The ball left Winker’s bat at 107.4 mph and traveled 397 feet.
It was the fifth home run from the leadoff spot in the Reds’ lineup this season, which matches the total from last year. Winker’s homer snapped a 12-inning scoreless streak.
When the Giants turned to reliever Jarlin García in the sixth inning, it was Joey Votto’s turn to add to the lead.
Votto, who said in a pre-game interview that he hadn’t seen many hittable fastballs this season, smacked a solo home run on a 91-mph fastball in the sixth inning over the right-field seats. The ball splashed into McCovey Cove for his first homer of the season, the first home run by a Reds hitter into McCovey Cove since the Giants started playing in their current ballpark in 2000.
There’s been a lot of lineouts for Votto – he had three balls with an exit velocity above 100 mph on Monday and just the one hit – but he said he needed to start hitting homers. A few hours later, he broke into a smile as he approached third-base coach J.R. House on his home run trot.
The Reds had just five hits, but their pitching was outstanding. Miley became the second Reds pitcher since 1893 to begin a season with two consecutive starts of at least five scoreless innings, joining Anthony DeSclafani from last year.
Miley continues to work at the quickest tempo in baseball. He says it doesn’t feel that fast to him but pitching coach Derek Johnson will joke with him that he doesn’t have enough time to write down each pitch on his chart. Miley said he was upset in his first start that hitters kept calling time – until Barnhart admitted in the dugout that it was him.
He was pulled after 73 pitches Monday, yielding two hits and one walk against the 18 batters he faced. He struck out the side in the third inning and induced a lot of weak contact. His tempo keeps his defense engaged, too.
Third baseman Mike Moustakas fielded a ground ball in the second inning down the third-base line that took him into foul territory. Moustakas set his feet and made a one-hop throw across the diamond. Votto picked it while falling backward, keeping his right foot attached to the first-base bag as his back hit the ground for the inning-ending out.
The reason why Miley was pulled so early? Antone was rested and available for multiple innings out of the bullpen.
Antone, who is being saved for high-leverage situations, permitted two baserunners (a walk to his first batter and a hit batsman in the ninth) across 3 2/3 innings. He struck out five.
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