Latos helps Chicago White Sox snap three-game losing streak
Mat Latos continued his early push for American League Comeback Player of the Year honors Tuesday night at U.S. Cellular Field.
Trying to fully recover from left knee surgery and knocks on his character the past two seasons while bouncing from the Cincinnati Reds to the Miami Marlins to the L.A. Dodgers to the L.A. Angels, Latos was still on the market in February.
A week before spring training opened, the Chicago White Sox signed the veteran starting pitcher to a one-year, $3 million contract.
Three starts into the season, it's looking like a shrewd deal for the Sox.
"He's doing great," manager Robin Ventura said after Latos sparked the White Sox to a 5-0 win over the Angels on Tuesday night at U.S. Cellular Field. "I don't know, surprised might not be the right word. But he's just commanding the strike zone, up and down, in and out. He's able to spin one in there when he needs to. It would be one thing if it was four innings, but he's done it over a period of a few games here."
Using a mixture of sliders, sinkers, curveballs and changeups against Los Angeles, Latos (3-0) allowed just 2 hits over 6⅓ innings. The right-hander had a no-hitter going until catcher Carlos Perez reached on an infield single with one out in the fifth.
In 18⅓ innings this season, Latos has allowed just 1 earned run (0.49 ERA) on 6 hits.
"I go out there every fifth day and I think that nobody can touch me," Latos said. "That's the way you've got to look at it. If I go out there and I'm scared and I'm thinking I've got to be too perfect, you wind up walking a bunch of people or give up hits and make mistakes. Knock on wood. I'm throwing the ball really well.
"Fastball command's been there, the slider's been really good. I've said time and time again, as long as I'm able to at least get a slider over for a strike, it helps out with the fastball a lot. I had a really good slider today, along with the fastball. I was able to make pitches when I needed to. A couple walks there kind of hurt my pitch count a little bit. I would have liked to have gone deeper into the ballgame and give the bullpen a little bit of a break, but I won't complain about this one."
Latos got early run support on solo home runs from Todd Frazier in the second inning and Jose Abreu in the fourth. The Sox broke the game open and snapped a three-game losing streak with 3 runs in the eighth inning, 2 scoring on Melky Cabrera's triple.
Latos didn't pitch well in spring training, but he's been the real deal in the regular season.
"Spring training is completely different," Latos said. "It's tough going out to the back fields and not really pitching with adrenaline and facing a lot of your own hitters. My gameplan hasn't been a secret. It's always pitch inside, and the last thing I want to do in spring training pitching against my own guys is run a two-seamer in on somebody's hands and hurt somebody. I'm not trying to hurt anybody."