Cincinnati Reds 3B Jeimer Candelario takes ill, scratched from Tuesday lineup vs. Mariners

SEATTLE – Cincinnati Reds third baseman Jeimer Candelario was scratched from Tuesday night's lineup because of one of any number of illnesses that have worked their way through the clubhouse since late in spring training last month.

Candelario was 4-for-12 since getting a day off Friday, with a double Saturday, a two-run single Sunday and his second home run of the season Monday night in the series opener against the Seattle Mariners.

Manager David Bell said Candelario started feeling bad Monday but was well enough by the time he got to the ballpark to play. By Tuesday the flulike symptoms were back, worse, he said, and Candelario was sent back to the hotel to mitigate the possible impact on anyone else on the team.

Many Reds players and some staff have weathered stomach bugs and assorted other aches and ailments for much of the past month.

Right-hander Nick Martinez, for example, stayed at the team hotel when sick over the weekend in Chicago.

He and Candelario were just two of a handful of players and staff to miss an occasional game to help avoid the spread of whatever bugs they might have had — although Bell said it’s hard to tell sometimes how many of the issues have been allergies and how many have been different kinds of stomach bugs and flu.

“I would always err on the side of if there’s any question at all, send them out, because I don’t want anybody to get sick,” he said. “But if we did that when 80 percent of them are allergies, we wouldn’t have been able to play more than maybe a game or two into the season if I’d done that.”

One upside, he said, is that the bugs have been spread out instead of coming in clusters — like last year’s COVID outbreak.

Another: “I think there’s a good chance we’re on the tail end of it.”

Candelario was originally to bat seventh and play third.

Santiago Espinal takes over at third, batting eighth.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Jeimer Candelario scratched from Cincinnati Reds lineup for illness