Mat Latos Really, Really Hates the Giants

Mat Latos hasn't ever minced words about his feelings toward the San Francisco Giants: he apparently still holds a grudge though.

When we previewed the Reds-Giants series, we pointed out that Mat Latos really doesn't care for the San Francisco Giants.

But perhaps we understated just how much Latos hates the Giants -- on Monday the Reds pitcher, according to Hank Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle, went up to Reds broadcasters and "handed them a ball that was inscribed with 'I hate the Giants.'"

Making this infinitely more humorous is that Latos later "chided" reporters for discussing his history for not liking the Giants -- when Latos was with the Padres, he infamously pointed out his distaste for the rival Giants.

“That’s old news. I’ve moved on. People have moved on. The Giants have moved on," Latos said. "Now we’ll see if the media moves on.”

Latos has also shown his distaste for the Giants on the field: as we noted in the preview, his splits against San Francisco are pretty outstanding.

And they only got better on Tuesday night, as Latos blanked the Giants for X innings in what was easily the best performance of 2012, not to mention his first decent showing with his new team.

Prior to the Giants game, Latos was 0-2 with an 8.22 ERA as a member of Cincy's squad and had scuffled so badly in his last outing (eight earned runs allowed to the Cardinals) that Reds "fans" started harassing his wife on Twitter.

That's the pitcher we traded for," Reds general manager Walt Jocketty said following the game.

Of course, Jocketty probably wants Latos to prove it against someone other than the Giants. Or at the very least funnel his hatred to the other 29 teams in baseball on occasion. It apparently works pretty well.

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