00:00joining us now a rangers pitcher with zero runs allowed zero hits allowed in his seven innings
00:06of work so far for your baseball team lefty jacob latch joining you here on the fan and a
00:11good afternoon sir how are you good afternoon i'm doing well how are you guys we're doing wonderful
00:16uh thanks looking forward to tonight's game and uh congrats on the success you've had so far how
00:21you feeling up there yeah feeling good to start um you know we had a good good road series uh
00:27road
00:27trip to start the year and um came back home hit a little bit of a lull but i like
00:32the way that we're
00:33coming together here early on and looking to win a series against our division opponents here in the
00:39mariners so good things ahead for us hey jacob what's it like to be just good at damn good at
00:44everything that you do and they ask you to do it i mean i'm really just uh just trying to
00:52answer the
00:53call when my name is uh is called upon basically so um yeah you know it feels good to be
01:01able to do
01:01multiple things uh like last year but you know a lot of baseball left to be played and just uh
01:07trying to take it one day at a time again nothing bothers you does it you could say okay tell
01:12me 30
01:13minutes before i'm supposed to pitch or i'll pitch four days five days from now it doesn't matter for
01:17you does it things don't bother you does it yeah i mean i feel like i've my patience has been
01:24tested
01:24a lot throughout my life so um it it seems to get stretched out even when i feel like i've
01:30hit my
01:30limits so uh that's really the the game of life and then baseball in my opinion mirrors it pretty well
01:37so uh they go you know hand in hand and yeah but maybe maybe i just do better when i
01:43you know
01:44i'm told on a whim to to get out there and go do my thing so what was that start
01:49like in philly i
01:50mean you're you get the you get told i don't know how how long was before the game then you
01:54go out
01:54there and you absolutely deal so being maybe in a bullpen mindset now i'm going to have to start
01:59like how do you balance that yeah i mean for that occasion uh we we kind of knew i guess
02:06a little bit
02:07early on in the day that uh the ground wasn't going to be able to go and um you know
02:13we're all
02:13fresh to start the year so that wasn't kind of in my mindset of uh how how good i'll feel
02:20for that
02:20one you know coming into spring we're all we're all ready to go and then a place like philly where
02:25the atmosphere is uh you know pretty crazy and adrenaline's always high it's not that difficult
02:30to kind of get things going and um i actually did feel feel pretty calm throughout that outing um
02:37and was able to just kind of pick up where i left off last year in terms of uh getting
02:42the
02:42opportunity to to to start you know out of nowhere and um yeah i was just was just happy the
02:49way i
02:49went batter to batter and stuck to the game plan and trusted the catcher and then look up later and
02:54see some zeros on the board is always nice jacob latz here with you on the fan now what are
02:59they
02:59telling you about starting is that is that on the table for for this season or or what's the approach
03:04there yeah i think it'll just be kind of uh as needed um you know we uh we broke camp
03:12with the
03:13five that we had and i think we have a you know a strong five right now kumar had a
03:17really good start
03:18um last week against the reds and i think you know my versatility is is going to be um something
03:26that
03:26they'll they'll lean on and whenever my name's called it'll be that way but uh i'm kind of just
03:32you know wherever our our biggest need is is at at the moment is where i'll be and um you
03:39know
03:39we'll see how it plays out as the year goes on but you know there's going to be opportunities to
03:43start i i feel and when that happens it'll be that way but it's you know not something i can
03:49really
03:49uh count on per se i just kind of have to take day by day as as where we're at
03:55do you have to do
03:56anything in particular to keep your arm ready for that um you know it i felt like i i was
04:05okay
04:05last year kind of just building up out of nowhere this year but you know having that workload under
04:11me in spring i feel like it definitely made me made me stronger um it was a little bit of
04:16an
04:17adjustment you know coming into camp and and uh going you know 60 70 pitches uh throughout those starts
04:25and so um it's easier to peel back but you know if if there comes a situation where i do
04:31need to get
04:31extended uh i don't feel like it's going to be an issue um we'll just uh we'll just have to
04:37make
04:37sure the communication is there from both the coaching staff and myself on how we're feeling
04:41and kind of just take it from there we hear about lighter talking about evo in the impact that he's
04:47made how much of a role does evolved your degrom or some of the veteran pitchers that have had so
04:53much success in their career what impact have they had on you yeah they've had a lot uh i mean
04:59first
04:59and foremost they lead by example so when you see them what they do on a daily basis it definitely
05:04rubs off on everyone else and then um you know the success it just kind of feeds feeds to the
05:11rest
05:11of the group and then yeah of all the end of grom there there really are open books and um
05:16we're
05:16really lucky to have those guys because experience plays a large part in this game but it also
05:23helps when you have elite competitors which they both are so they have a good mix of um being
05:29prepared but then letting their their you know just competitive nature take over in game and um so
05:36they're able to kind of balance that out with what's important what what to take away from either the
05:43hitter or however you're feeling and play to your strengths um i think they just help ease that that
05:50learning curve that a lot of young pitchers have when you get called up but you know even a guy
05:54like
05:54mckenzie gore as well being another left-hander it's just cool to to witness you know firsthand
06:00these guys go about their business on a day-to-day basis and just by just by observing them you
06:05can
06:05learn a lot well thanks once again for the baseball conversation jacob congrats on your success and and
06:11best of luck give them hell we'll be pulling for you thank you guys appreciate it
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