Mat Latos’ personal unbeaten streak came to an end Tuesday night against the Pirates, but that wasn’t what drew the ire of the Reds’ starting pitcher.
The Reds lost a 4-0 game to Pittsburgh, but the tally Latos focused on was the hit batters between the two clubs this season. In that battle, the Pirates have a 10-6 lead, which includes Shin-Soo Choo being hit six times alone.
Choo was hit in the leg on Pirates starter Charlie Morton’s first pitch of the night, and Latos could be seen on the top step of the Reds’ dugout, yelling his displeasure.
“I think it’s time that somebody steps up and starts disciplining the team that’s drilled the most guys in the league,” Latos said after the game. “They’ve hit a lot of guys, whether it’s intentional or it’s by accident. Something has got to be done about it.”
Two batters after Choo took his league-leading 19th pitch off his body, Morton moved Joey Votto back with a fastball that was up and in.
Pirates pitchers lead the Majors with 37 hit batters this season. Latos admitted to being fined by Major League Baseball for hitting Neil Walker with a pitch on June 2 in Pittsburgh. That pitch was likely in response to Brandon Phillips being knocked out of a game with a bruised left forearm by a Tony Watson pitch a night earlier.
“Whether I got fined for accidentally hitting Neil Walker or I got fined for hitting him on purpose to protect my own teammates … I can’t control the game or how they get disciplined, but something needs to come out of that,” Latos said.
Morton hit Choo on Tuesday one night after Walker was brushed back by an Aroldis Chapman 100-mph fastball under the chin. No warnings appeared to be issued to the benches. Pirates manager Clint Hurdle denied it was a purpose pitch.
“You throw out a term ‘beanball,’ I don’t go there. It’s competitive baseball,” Hurdle said.
By the time Choo was hit by the pitch, the Reds already faced a 3-0 deficit. How that happened also rankled Latos.
“I got aggravated with myself. I didn’t feel too well in the bullpen,” Latos said. “I kind of took it into the first inning. I beat myself today.”
Starling Marte led off the game with a triple to right-center field and scored on Russell Martin’s infield single to shortstop Zack Cozart. Martin stole second base on a close play where he twice eluded the tag from Cozart. As the replay was inconclusive, manager Dusty Baker argued with umpire Paul Emmel to no avail.
“He was all over the place,” Baker said of Latos. “There were a couple of hustle plays on their end. That was big and sort of set the stage. The triple and the trick slide that Martin had — it looked like he got a little out of sorts after that.”
With one out in the first, Latos dueled Garrett Jones for 10 pitches, but lost him to a walk. A Walker free pass followed to load the bases. Pedro Alvarez’s single off the left-field wall scored two more runs and quickly made it a 3-0 game. Latos needed 32 pitches to get through the first.
After the activity in the bottom of the first inning, Latos did not seek retribution. Instead, he got revenge by dominating the next four innings.
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