Jesse Winker, the one-time Brewer who was getting booed and jeered by the home crowd, delivered a measure of revenge against his former club, a two-run triple to kickstart the Mets to an 8-4 win in the first game of the Wild Card series with Milwaukee.
With New York down 2-0, Winker stepped to the plate for his first at-bat with two on and nobody out in the second. And on the eighth pitch he saw, he lined a 3-2 changeup 99.9 mph off the bat into the right-field corner to level the score.
“You’re fired up, it’s what you play the game for,” Winker said about his emotions upon reaching third base. “To help a team win a game in the playoffs it’s so much bigger than yourself, it’s bigger than all of us, so there were a ton of emotions for sure.”
Was it a bigger moment to do it in a hostile environment and silence a once-raucous home crowd?
“I don’t care,” Winker said with a quick shake of his head.
On the replay of the triple, Winker appeared to exchange some words with Brewers starter Freddy Peralta as he was running to second base. The Mets’ trade-deadline acquisition denied there was any chirping after the game.
He explained that he was watching the runners ahead of him – Mark Vientos and Pete Alonso – and as soon as he saw Mike Sarbaugh waving Alonso home, “I put my focus on second and I’m like I’m going to third. That’s all that was, that’s all that happened.
“If y’all think I’m able to run and talk, you don’t know my athletic abilities. Can’t do that.”
Of course, at third, he did have an exchange with Milwaukee third baseman Willy Adames that had third base umpire Alan Porter‘s attention as he circled the interaction.
When asked what Adames was saying, Winker said, “Nothing.”
What did Winker say to Adames? “I don’t really wanna speak on it,” he said with a shake of his head. “I just wanna focus on the game tomorrow.”
Asked if he was satisfied the spat with Adames was over, Winker said, “Yeah, it’s out of my control. I just want to help the team win a baseball game tomorrow.”
Adames said it was “surprising” that his ex-teammate would say some stuff and that he “didn’t know what was going through [Winker’s] head.”
“He just started saying some stuff and I just said something back,” he added with a shrug. “I don’t know, I think that’s the kinda player he is. It is what it is.”
For Winker, it was a big-time hit. He made only 13 starts in September (playing 18 games) and had just three hits in 42 at-bats (.071) with a .393 OPS. And before the big hit, he was stuck in an 0-for-15 slump without a hit since Sept. 13.
Later in the game, Winker, serving as the designated hitter, stumbled out of the batter’s box on a ground out to first in the top half of the fourth inning and appeared to walk gingerly back to the dugout.
Winker had been dealing with a back issue and did not play in the last two games in the penultimate series of the season nor either of the games in the double-header in Atlanta.
He emerged from the dugout to stand on deck with two outs in the top of the fifth and appeared to walk a bit stiffly. After the game, he said he “felt good” physically.
Winker was pulled back for pinch-hitter J.D. Martinez, who had been struggling himself, to bat against Milwaukee left-hander Aaron Ashby and the veteran delivered a two-RBI single to the right side of the infield capping off a five-run inning to give the Mets an 8-4 lead and they never looked back.
“There’s great at-bats up and down, everyone did their part,” Winker said. “Starling [Marte] with the sac fly and then he almost hit a homer, Mark swung the bat well. It’s just all about passing the baton and J.D.’s huge man.
“He helped me a lot before this game, he’s helped me out a ton since I’ve been here. He’s a pro. So, obviously, having a guy like that to lean on and Francisco [Lindor], as well. Two guys that have done this at this stage of the game, it’s huge.”
After needing two wins from the final three games over Sunday and Monday, to win Game 1 after flying in from Atlanta the day before was “the story of this team,” Winker said,
“Coming here at the deadline I heard pretty much, the full story, how the start and everything,” he continued. “There’s been a bunch of things thrown at this team and just responding. It’s go time, you’re in the playoffs.
“There’s no time really to be thinking about the doubleheader, we did our job there and then we popped champagne and then we got on the plane and it was like ‘alright here we go.'”
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