Stifled Sneeze Sidelines Padres Stud Mat Latos

↵↵All that advice your mom and pediatrician gave you about not trying to stifle sneezes? Yeah, Mat Latos may have ignored that. And he’s headed to the disabled list because of it.↵

↵↵⇥Latos, who is tied for third in the National League with 10 victories, will be placed on the 15-day disabled list on Friday with a strain to his left side.↵⇥↵⇥Latos said he suffered the injury attempting to hold back a sneeze on Friday in Colorado, a day after he improved to 10-4 and lowered his ERA 2.45 with a victory in Washington.↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥“I held my sneeze walking down the [dugout] steps and felt a little pull,” Latos said just before a workout at PETCO Park in advance of Friday’s game against Arizona, the first game of the second half of the regular season.↵⇥

↵↵This won’t hurt the Padres all that much, if at all. The 22-year-old pitcher was scheduled for rest, and he’s earned it, allowing one earned run in his last four starts while punching out 28 batters. He’s eligible to return on July 24 and may not even miss a scheduled start. And, for a weird injury, this isn’t all that new—Sammy Sosa sneezed himself sore once. This is funny, benign, frivolous and quite silly.↵↵You would think that sneeze safety might be obvious to players, however, especially ones who makes batters whiff so frequently. (Otolaryngological puns! Excuse me while I hack.)↵

↵↵(HT: Big League Stew.)↵

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