Latos Penciled Into Rotation For Satuday

http://donatelifeohio.org/

Mat Latos hopes to be a real boy on Saturday.

Latos referred to himself as a "puppet on a string" and did not want to pitch in Pawtucket last night but he did.

Bryan Price wanted to be certain that he was capable of throwing 90-100 pitches.  As luck would have it, rain came down in the sixth innings after the big right-hander threw 81 pitches.

It is still not a guarantee that Latos will pitch Saturday instead of Tony Cingrani.

 "Latos threw into the sixth inning and the rain came<" Price said.. "He went inside and threw another 18 pitches.  We will see how he feels. He will take Tuesday and Wednesday off and throw a side on Thursday.  He is tentatively scheduled to pitch Saturday."

It is likely that Tony Cingrani will go to the bullpen.

http://www.wiedemannbeer.com/

"Cingrani is going through what a lot of guys go through," Price said. "It is hard to stick here. There are options pending. It's likely Cingrani will be affected by activating Mat."

Latos is ready finally and feels more than ready to pitch in higher competition.

"I was ready five or six days ago. It will be a release from the stress," Latos said. "It sucks that I used really good stuff in a minor league game. I wasn't able to face any kind of competition in spring training."

Latos was pleased with his out in Rhode Island last night. He pitched 5 2/3 innings, allowing one run on four hits and three walks.  He struck out four.

"The velocity was there 90-94, 95, throwing 90 mile an hour sliders," Latos said. "I threw some pitches I normally wouldn't throw in a big league game that led to a few walks but it helped me out getting the pitch count up. I started one guy off with back-to-back change ups. I wouldn't normally do that.  I threw 3-2 change ups. I was just trying to work on stuff and get the pitch count up."