... Latos's numbers, believe it or not, are much better at home!
4-1 record, 3.91 ERA in 8 home starts covering 50.2 innings pitched.
1-1 record, 7.45 ERA in 6 road starts covering 29.0 innings pitched.
At home, within the cozy confines of GABP, Latos has given up 11 long balls. That includes that Colorado classic where all 5 hits allowed in a winning effort, were solo homers.
On the road, Latos has had 5 balls leave the yard. I guess proportionally it's not that much of a difference because Latos has pitched far fewer innings on the road.
Now Latos has had a couple of good starts on the road. Just hasn't given us enough innings. His longest road outing of the season was his lone victory on the road in Pittsburgh where he worked 6 full innings allowing 0 runs on 2 hits with 11 K's.
His last two road starts, both in June, have been absolute clunkers where he hasn't been able to get past the 4th inning.
At home in Cincy, Mat has gotten the win in 3 of his last 4 starts (and the Reds won the other game against the Tigers where he got a N.D.).
Latos in Cincy has routinely pitched into the 7th inning or beyond at home with only two exceptions. One of those came in his first start of the season against Miami, where he was admittedly nervous making his first start as a Red after coming over in return for four other players.
Talk about pressure to deliver.
I will have to say that the one stat that I find most troublesome, and a bit surprising, is how Latos becomes less effective each time through the lineup.
Opponents batting averages the first time they face Mat in a ballgame is .218.
The 2nd time through the lineup, the batting average jumps to nearly .300 at .296! Wow!
The 3rd time through, significantly over .300 at .325!
There have only been 3 plate appearances for batters in a 4th time through, so an insignificant stat.
Forget about whatever mind games were going on about the Tribe stealing signs etc in last week's game, but apparently, maybe there is something to the notion that Latos is tipping off his pitches and as the game goes on he's not fooling anybody.
Well, if there was ever a time where we needed the guy who we gave up all that talent (or potential talent) for to come pitch for the Reds to have a big game, that would be tonight.
After two very rough series we need a good start to the last home series prior to the ASB, and prior to the monster west coast trip on the horizon.
Finally, with Volquez having just pitched yesterday for the Pods (and winning) was wondering if there could be a Volquez-Latos match-up when we visit San Diego ... but doesn't look to be the case unless Volq gets an extra day of rest somewhere in between.
Edited 6/25/12 by jerseyreds