After striking out, Reds’ Jesse Winker flashed a thumbs up at Royals’ Matt Harvey
Matt Harvey made his Royals debut in the second game of Wednesday’s doubleheader against the Cincinnati Reds, and he was familiar with the opposition.
Harvey made 24 starts for the Reds in 2018, so he knew some of the players he was facing. One of those ex-teammates is Cincinnati outfielder Jesse Winker, who did something unusual on Wednesday.
After Winker struck out looking in the first inning, he looked back and Harvey and gave him a thumbs up. But Harvey missed it at the time.
“I knew I’d made a good pitch and then I started walking off,” Harvey said. “I think someone may have mentioned something in the dugout or after I got done but I went back and looked at it. It’s pretty funny.”
Harvey didn’t return the favor when Winker a home run in the third inning. Eduardo Suarez, who also played with Harvey, also hit a homer.
“Obviously being a former teammate with both of those guys who hit homers off me, I’m not really happy about that,” Harvey said. “But I went back and looked at that at-bat, the first at-bat that I faced (Winker), and I threw some really good pitches. Like I said, it’s in there, it’s just kind of fine tuning the pitching usage and also the location for those.”
