BALTIMORE \u2014 Meet the Rangers’ newest starter: Jacob deLatz.<\/p>\n
Anyone?<\/p>\n
Look, you can see strange things in the heat. One moment, a guy is a reliever just filling in for a day. The next, his teammates are mistaking him with the much taller, even skinnier multiple Cy Young Award winner in their starting rotation. That\u2019s what happens when you flirt with a no-hitter.<\/p>\n
On a 100-degree night Tuesday, and in his third major league start, Latz took a no-hitter to the seventh inning against Baltimore. Looked like an old pro in doing so. And, after a 6-5 10-inning win that went haywire the minute Latz was pulled with one hit allowed over a career-high 88 pitches, his bullpen mates couldn\u2019t help but joke around mistakenly calling him \u201cJacob deGrom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Or should we say former bullpen mates. After Latz\u2019s run over the last three weeks as the club has stretched him out, he\u2019s looked increasingly more like a starter than just a reliever in starter\u2019s clothes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll huddle up talk about that,\u201d Bruce Bochy said in deferring to pass judgement on a change in role for his pitcher 15 minutes after a wild game. \u201cBut, yeah, he\u2019s throwing the ball terrific. It\u2019s been really fun to watch how this guy just gets better and better and the confidence he\u2019s pitching with. Of course, it\u2019s a legitimate thought [about the rotation]. He\u2019s a weapon, whether he starts or he\u2019s in the bullpen. He\u2019s stretched out now and you\u2019ve heard me say before that he\u2019s got starter stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
In two starts plus a \u201cbulk\u201d outing, Latz has a nice 3.00 ERA over 15 innings. But that hardly describes what he\u2019s done in the opportunity. Three of the five runs charged to him have scored after his bullpen mates let him down and allowed inherited runners to score. Chris Martin allowed the two he inherited to score on the first of three consecutive homers he allowed Tuesday.<\/p>\n
In his first start at Washington, Latz allowed one single and one walk, both erased by double plays, over the first three innings. Tired at about the 50-pitch mark. He extended himself to nearly six innings and 82 pitches against Kansas City last week as the \u201cbulk pitcher\u201d behind opener Shawn Armstrong, allowing only a solo homer.<\/p>\n
He struck out three straight after a walk in the fifth, then retired the side in order in the sixth, extending himself to 79 pitches. With a 4-0 lead and the realization he\u2019d not allowed a hit, the Rangers allowed him to start the seventh. And that is the moment that Jacob Latz realized that he hadn\u2019t just allowed no hits, but was now fully working on a no-hitter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked at the scoreboard, I looked at the crowd and I took it in for a second,\u201d Latz acknowledged afterward. \u201cBut once the batter steps in the box, it\u2019s back to what we were doing. Yes, he got the hit that inning. Yes, I might have let it creep into my mind a little bit, but it was more just the realization of where I was at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a starter is one of the better jobs in all of baseball, so I\u2019m not going to say I don\u2019t want to be a starting pitcher,\u201d Latz said. \u201cObviously, I do like it. But I\u2019m comfortable either way. If that\u2019s in the rotation, that\u2019s great.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut hopefully we can just take this win as a good momentum boost and put ourselves in a good spot here come next month.\u201d<\/p>\n
To that point, it\u2019s hard to think, at least based on the small sample size and the importance of the next few weeks, that the possibility of starting is not a real conversation. It\u2019s also hard to see exactly how the Rangers would wedge him in. Nathan Eovaldi is expected to return to the rotation Friday, which should give the team a full five-man group.<\/p>\n
Latz will leave that to the Rangers to figure out. And in the meantime, he\u2019ll answer to whatever – or whenever – his teammates and manager call him or call on him.<\/p>\n
Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.<\/p>\n
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A: Jacob deLatz is a baseball player who recently started for the Rangers and took a no-hitter to the seventh inning against Baltimore.<\/p>\n
A: Jacob deLatz’s role in the team is currently being discussed, with possibilities of him being a starter or a reliever.<\/p>\n
A: Jacob deLatz performed well in his recent games, with a 3.00 ERA over 15 innings and allowing only a few hits and runs.<\/p>\n
A: The plans for Jacob deLatz’s future in the team are currently being discussed, with possibilities of him being a starter or a reliever, and potentially being part of the rotation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Introduction to Jacob deLatz BALTIMORE \u2014 Meet the Rangers’ newest starter: Jacob deLatz. Anyone? Look, you can see strange things in the heat. One moment, a guy is a reliever just filling in for a day. The next, his teammates are mistaking him with the much taller, even skinnier multiple Cy Young Award winner in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":8319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dmn-dallas-news-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com\/resizer\/v2\/OFS7Z4KCSVHXDEECCP77Y3B7L4.jpg?auth=c5182ac8bde58899d289bfd2b21af96450e2affa08477fcdd2f19e335851cfc7&height=630&width=1200&focal=3859,1733&quality=80","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8318"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8318"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8320,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8318\/revisions\/8320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}