Mat Latos Gets His Comeuppance in Epic Fashion as Reds Win 10-3

The Reds have been waiting a long time to exact their revenge on Mat Latos in response to his nasty comments about the Reds and their training staff back in Spring Training. The Reds never got to face him when he was with the Marlins. Tonight Latos didn’t even make it through the 5th inning and allowed five runs (four earned) to take the loss. His brief Dodgers career has not gone well so far, he has a 7.36 ERA in 14.2 innings with Los Angeles. Tonight Dallas’ husband gave up 7 hits but struck out 7 Reds while walking only one — and that one walk was intentional.

Early in the game it looked like Latos was going to shut the Reds down, but the Cincinnati bats pieced together some timely hits and scored twice in the third inning. Tucker Barnhart led off the inning with a double and was then bunted over to third base by pitcher Keyvius Sampson. Billy Hamilton hit a sharp grounder to left field that scored Barnhart. With Hamilton on first base, Latos tried to pick him off and threw the ball down the right field line, allowing Hamilton to advance all the way to third base. That brought leadoff batter Brandon Phillips to the plate and he hit a crisp single up the middle to score Hamilton.

Todd Frazier seems to be emerging from the throes of a very deep slump. He led off the 4th inning with a double to left center. Frazier then attempted to steal third base and was thrown out by several feet, but third baseman Alberto Callaspo dropped the ball, allowing Frazier to reach the bag safely. The throw beat Todd to the bag by so much that he didn’t even slide. Following a Jay Bruce strikeout Marlon Byrd was able to drive in the run with a sacrifice fly.

In the bottom of the 4th, Dodger’s rookie outfielder Joc Pederson stepped to the plate and whacked a 380 foot home run to left center that whittled the Reds lead to 3-1. Pederson of course was Todd Frazier’s opponent in the semi-finals of the Home Run Derby.

In the 5th inning the Reds struck again. Billy Hamilton led off with a hard ground ball through the right side of the infield, then he stole second base on a very close play that was challenged by the Dodgers. The replay appeared to show that Hamilton should have been called out, but the replay crew found insufficient evidence to overturn the safe call. Brandon Phillips then doubled down the right field line to score Hamilton. Eugenio Suarez hit a double to the other side that brought Phillips around to score.

In the bottom of the 5th the Dodgers hit a pair of singles and a sacrifice fly to score a run off Keyvius Sampson. The rookie pitcher was pulled after five innings having allowed only two runs. He struck out three and walked three while giving up five base hits. It was another fine performance by Sampson, one that could lock him into the starting rotation moving forward. When the Reds called him up a couple weeks ago it was not expected to be a long-term thing, but Sampson has seized his opportunity by going 2-1 with a 3.16 ERA in four games, including three starts.

Sampson has struck out 7.94 batters per nine innings, which is good. He has walked 3.71 BB/9, which is a little high. Sampson has a .217 BABIP and an 80% strand rate, neither of which are anywhere close to sustainable. His FIP is 4.10 and his xFIP is 4.32, both of which show he hasn’t really pitched quite as well as his shiny 3.13 ERA indicates but I don’t think anyone really expects him to continue succeeding quite that well anyway. Sampson has been very effective thus far. Hopefully he can keep it rolling.

The Reds broke the game open in the 6th inning. With one out, Barnhart drew a walk. Jason Bourgeois pinch-hit for Sampson and singled to right. Hamilton got his third hit of the game, a single to center that loaded the bases. Phillips tapped the ball back to the pitcher, but it was good enough to score Barnhart. That brought Suarez to the plate for this three run blast, making the score 9-2.

The Dodgers scored in the bottom of the inning after the controversial Yasiel Puig reached on an infield single, then advanced to second when the erroneous throw eluded the first baseman. Carl Crawford advanced Puig with a single, then Joc Pederson brought him home on a sac fly to make it 9-3 Reds.

Hamilton’s fourth hit of the game was a surprising 393 foot round-tripper to left field in the top of the 8th while batting right-handed. I didn’t know he had that in him. I bet that is just about as far as Billy can whack one. You don’t often see a #9 hitter get four hits, jack a homer and score four times.

View the Highlights from ESPN

Player of the Game:

Billy Hamilton, 4 for 4 at the plate with three singles and a home run. He scored four runs, drove in two and stole a base.

Good Stuff:

— Eugenio Suarez had three hits and all of them were of the extra-base variety. Two doubles and a home run with four RBI. He also made a great play at shortstop.

— Todd Frazier is back to being Todd Frazier. He had three hits last night and two more tonight.  His six-week slump might be a thing of the past.

— Brandon Phillips continued his hot streak with two hits and three RBI.

— Jay Bruce made a nice catch while battling the lights.

— The bullpen only gave up one run in four innings. Mattheus allowed the run. Badenhop, Parra and Villareal each threw scoreless innings.

— The Reds went 7-14 w/RISP in the game.

— Billy Hamilton leads the league with 53 steals on the season.

— Prospect Jesse Winker has homered in three games in a row for Pensacola.

— Listening to Dodgers’ broadcaster Vin Scully smoothly narrate the ballgame is always a joy. Scully makes the price of MLB.tv worth it all by himself. He is the most prepared man in the business at the age of 87. He is still by far the best broadcaster in any sport and he is in his 66th season as the voice of the Dodgers, having started when they were still in Brooklyn.

Bad Stuff:

— How much can go wrong when you win 10 to 3?

— It is a bit of a concern that the young starting pitchers are not going deep into games. When you are lucky to get five or six innings from your starters day after day it is going to cause bullpen problems eventually.

— The Reds’ #1 prospect, Robert Stephenson, left Wednesday night’s game with an injury that sent a scare through all of Redleg Nation. Word out of Louisville is that it is a minor wrist injury. Let’s hope that is all it is.

Up Next:

Newly acquired pitching prospect John Lamb will make his major league debut tomorrow night at Dodger Stadium. He will be opposed by another pitcher the Dodgers acquired at the trade deadline in young lefty Alex Wood, formerly of the Braves.

Reds vs Dodgers at 10:10 PM Friday night.

Reds: LH John Lamb (0-0, 0.00) vs Dodgers: LH Alex Wood (7-7, 3.72)