Bluegrassrivals

Final

PITTSBURGH - Mat Latos woke up feeling bad -- not good on the day you’re pitching.

“I was not feeling good at all this morning,” he said. “I woke up throwing up. It wasn’t pretty.”

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Neither was the first inning of Latos’ outing. He hit the first batter. He walked two of three next three. He escaped, thanks largely to a great play by Todd Frazier that save a couple of runs.

Getting out of the first was just what the doctor ordered. From there, Latos felt better. Good enough, in fact, to pitch the Reds to a 5-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates before a crowd of 20,042 at PNC Park.

Drew Stubbs led the offense, gong 3-for-4 with a two-run home, a stole base and three runs scored. Frazier was 2-for-4 a home run.

The victory gave the Reds the series. They are 4-0-1 in their last five series and final game of eight of their nine series.

Latos went six innings and allowed two hits. He walked three and struck out a career-high 11.

“That was a gutsy performance,” Reds manager Dusty Baker said. “I kept calling him Michael Jordan all day from that playoff game (Jordan played with the flu). He said, ‘Skip, I’m fine.’ He gave us all he had.”

J.J. Hoover, Aroldis Chapman and Alfredo Simon finished the shutout. They struck out two a piece. The Reds tied a club record for a nine-inning game with 17 strikeouts.

But, in the first, things wren’t looking so good. The Reds had taken a 1-0 lead on Joey Votto’s RBI single. But Latos took the mound with more on his mind than protecting the lead.

“I thought I was going to throw up a couple of times,” Latos said.

The key play of the game came after the Pirates loaded the bases with one out. Casey McGehee scorched a low line drive that Frazier made a diving stop on. If the ball gets by Frazier two runs definitely score. It probably clears the bases.

“That’s just reaction right there,” Frazier said. “Hard-hit ball. You just try to knock it down basically, anything you can do to save the runners. Luckily, it got in the glove. It almost snuck out there. I was holding it to let (the ump) know.”

“I thought it was by him already,” Latos said. “I was looking down the line to see where it was. That was a key to get me on track.”

Frazier made it a 2-0 game with his first home run of the year -- a line shot to left. By that, Latos was feeling better.

“I started drinking more fluids,” Latos said. “It kind of quieted down.”

Frazier didn’t even notice Latos was sick.

“I didn’t look like it on the mound,” Frazier said. “Good for him. Hopefully, he feels like that every time he pitches. He did a really good job.”

Drew Stubbs pushed the lead to 4-0 with a two-run shot to center for his third of the year. The four runs were one more than Charlie Morton allowed in four starts and 29 1/3 innings against the Reds last year.

The Reds added one in the fifth. Stubbs led off with an infield single. He stole second, moved to third on Votto’s long flyball and scored Brandon Phillips’ sacrifice fly.

Latos was limited to six innings. His pitch count was at 107 when he left. But the bullpen pushed its scoreless streak 21 innings.

The Reds are back over .500 at 14-13.

“It was a good day overall,” Baker said. “Get-away day is big. It’s usually the rubber-match game, which it was today. It was big for us to beat Morton. Last year, he shut us out twice.”http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120...s|img|Reds

4 of their last 5 baby!!!!

Drew Stubbs is thriving in the #2 spot.

He's swinging a hot bat lately.

Latos was on his game after some shaky command issues early, pretty impressive game knowing he was really sick.

Thank God...you shouldn't ever lose to the pirates.