Latos seizes surprise opportunity before hamstring injury

Mat Latos didn't know if this opportunity would come, certainly not this season. Ditched by the White Sox in June, the odds of the journeyman right-hander starting a key pennant race game for a first-place club in mid-September seemed ludicrous.

Yet there was Latos tonight, not only taking the mound in the top of the first inning for the Nationals in their series opener with the Mets, but pitching effectively and even homering for the home team during an 8-1 victory that brought its magic number to clinch the NL East down to nine.

"I'm extremely grateful for ... them giving me the chance and putting me down in Viera and putting a program together," said Latos, who worked his way back from the Nationals' minor league facility in Florida to Triple-A Syracuse and now to the majors again. "Just getting the chance of them adding me to the roster, bullpen or not. That's the one thing I told them: I'm prepared to do whatever I need to do, whether it's multiple innings, start, left-handed specialist. Whatever it is, I'll do whatever I have to do."

Unless he knows something the rest of the world doesn't, the odds of the Nationals asking Latos to be a left-handed specialist for the stretch run seem a bit remote.

But they asked plenty of him tonight, and he responded with an impressive performance that would have stolen the show altogether if not for the fact it was abruptly cut short when his right hamstring tightened up during the top of the fifth.

Latos said he initially hurt himself trying to leap for James Loney's chopper at the outset of the fifth inning. He remained on the mound and faced two more batters, but after Jose Reyes singled to right on a fastball that registered only 87 mph, the pitcher felt a tug in his right hamstring and motioned first for catcher Wilson Ramos and then manager Dusty Baker, pitching coach Mike Maddux and head athletic trainer Paul Lessard.

"It got tight on me," he said. "Tried to work my way through, but it just kept grabbing and grabbing, so there was no way I was going to risk (it) further or risk the ballgame."

Latos wound up departing after only 68 pitches, having surrendered just one run on three hits. Two outs shy of qualifying for the win, he was left to cede that to teammate Reynaldo Lopez, who pitched three scoreless innings out of the bullpen.

Baker downplayed the severity of the injury after the game - "He'll be all right," the manager said - but Latos did limp through the clubhouse with his upper right leg wrapped in a bandage. He won't know what exactly is next for him until trainers get a chance to work on him Tuesday.

"From what I've been told by the medical staff, I'm going to get abused tomorrow, and we'll see how it feels," he said. "I'm just going to take it day-by-day, see how I feel on a daily basis, and let them do what they got to do."

The Nationals may not need much more from Latos this season anyway. This start came about only after injuries to Stephen Strasburg and Joe Ross, plus ineffectiveness from rookies Lopez and Lucas Giolito. Ross, though, appears ready to return and could slide right into Latos' rotation spot this weekend in Atlanta.

No matter what happens next for him, Latos will always have this night. He's actually an area native, having been born in Alexandria in 1987. Though he moved to Florida as a toddler, he does still have family here, some of whom were in attendance tonight to watch him not only pitch but also launch the fourth home run of his career.

"It was awesome," he said. "I was born here, so it was real nice to go around the bases today. Maybe not next time. Maybe the hamstring will hold up next time."

Baker, who managed Latos in Cincinnati, knows the big right-hander can hit. Not to mention talk a good game about it. The manager even happened to bring it up with second baseman Daniel Murphy as Latos stood at the plate in the bottom of the second.

"I just told Murphy: 'He's a good hitter. He might hit one out of here. And when he does, he's gonna do a lot of talking.'"

Murphy's reply: "If he hits a home run, he's more than welcome to talk about it for as long as he wants. And then he went bridge."

It was a somewhat surreal, but special moment for Latos, whose career was a mess only a few months ago. Where he goes from here remains to be seen, but he'll always be grateful to the Nationals - and his once and current manager - for giving him this opportunity.

"I've told him it's a chance to re-establish his value and get back on the board as a big league pitcher," Baker said. "Try to find a home and not go from team to team to team, because he has too good of stuff. We took a chance and sent him down to get in great shape. He's in much better shape now than when we saw him in Chicago (in June). He can pitch. Just a matter of him concentrating, which he did tonight."