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Levine: Mat Latos Continues Winning Ways

By Bruce Levine --

CHICAGO (CBS) -- In one of the more shocking starts to the 2016 baseball season, White Sox right-hander has found his mojo early and has improved to 4-0 after his team's 4-1 victory against the Rangers on Sunday at U.S. Cellular Field.

Despite getting hit hard at times, Latos gutted through six innings for his fourth victory in as many outings. Latos has given the Sox a professional effort every time out, and two double plays by his defense bailed him out of jams in the fourth and sixth innings Sunday.

Latos signed a one-year $3-million contract with Chicago in February. He earned a spot in the rotation despite having a horrendous spring in Arizona. After his third victory last Monday, Latos admitted he was bad in the spring. He added he was working on getting the ball in on hitters' hands and not worried about the numbers in the Cactus League.

The White Sox now have two pitchers who are 4-0, as Latos joined Chris Sale in that regard. Latos allowed one run on seven hits and two walks while striking out two in six innings against the Rangers.

"My plan is to go out there every fifth day, attack the zone and throw strikes," Latos said. "That's it. I want to put zeros up on the board. Every fifth day I go out there, I want to command the strike zone -- down. I want mix my slider for strikes, getting the curve ball over for strikes is also key, a split when I need to and again put zeros on the board."

Manager Robin Ventura rolled the dice with Latos when he allowed him to stay in the game with the tying runs on base and one out in the sixth. Latos had been up in the zone all day and was at 109 pitches when he induced a 1-4-3 double play to get out of the inning.

Latos has a 0.74 ERA this season.

"With Mat, he has been pitching pretty good," Ventura said. "With (Mitch) Moreland up there, we use (Zach Duke) right there, or (Dan Jennings).The confidence was in Maty to get through that part of the lineup and then go to Duke."

The White Sox have the most wins in the American League with 13. The Chicago pitching staff has been awesome with the lowest ERA in the American League and has bailed out the offense in numerous games.

Latos has won four straight starts for the first time in his career. He admitted it was a struggle all day to command his pitches.

"I was kind of running on fumes in the last part." he said. "I was lucky to get a ground ball."

White Sox starting pitchers have a 1.15 ERA over their last six starts (five earned runs in 39 innings).

"Mostly it's about the attack we want to do," Latos said. "We do not want to walk hitters. The offense has come through for me when I needed them. It hasn't been just me out there, it's all 25 of us. We have really come together, everybody is pulling for everybody. You can see that in the dugout every day. I personally have been trying to go up there and put up zeros as much as I can. I think with some of the personalities we have and veterans we have, we have pretty much meshed together. We have come together quick as a team."

The 13-6 start is the best start for the White Sox since 2006, when they also went 13-6.

Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score and CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.

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