Garrett Richards Leaves First Start Early in Oakland
By Jason Burke
Garrett Richards and the Los Angeles Angels were cruising right along by the time the fifth inning rolled around, but Richards was removed before he could record one final out and qualify for the victory.
The Los Angeles Angels have a very slim margin in order to compete in 2017, and a big part of that is Garrett Richards staying healthy for the entire season and performing like the Cy Young contender he has appeared destined to become. Injuries, however, keep getting in the way.
On Wednesday night Richards was pulled from the game as a precautionary measure according to Pedro Moura of the LA Times. In the linked article, Moura explains that after cruising right along, retiring 11 straight A’s, Richards missed his spots badly on a couple of breaking balls and saw his velocity dip on his heater. Earlier in the game he had been hitting 96-98 with his fastball. Moura says that the initial diagnosis is a cramp in his bicep and he could still make his next start in Anaheim on Tuesday.
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Richards managed only six starts in 2016 before missing the rest of the season with a tear in his UCL. Instead of going under the knife like most players do these days, Richards opted for stem cell therapy.
Back in 2014 Richards had been sailing along, holding a 2.61 ERA through 168 2/3 innings before a start in Boston where he went to cover first base and caught his foot somewhere along the way, injuring his knee and ending his season.
Luck certainly has not been on Richards’ side to this point. However, if the early diagnosis turns out to be correct, the Angels and Richards may have avoided their first big injury scare of the season.
After inheriting a 5-0 lead on Wednesday night, the Angel bullpen, or more specifically Jose Alvarez, J.C. Ramirez and Yusmeiro Petit, worked the final 4 1/3 innings to finish of what Richards had started and at about the same pace that the starter had set for them. They combined for three strikeouts and three hits allowed while Richards also allowed three hits but struck out four.
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If this turns into a brief setback the Angels have enough depth to cover for a couple of starts. But if this turns into anything longer than just a couple of weeks, the Los Angeles Angels are going to have a hard time staying in contention in what was already looking to be a tall task.