Thanks for coming out, Garrett Richards. You gave it your best shot and we appreciate the effort, but it doesn’t look like this is going work out at the present time.
It was a longshot for Garrett Richards to step in and become an effective member of the rotation, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that Richards’ MLB debut didn’t go so well tonight. In the kid’s defense, he didn’t get shelled like so many other recaps have suggested. Remove his rough first inning (which is pretty fair since any kid making their MLB debut is going to be a mess of nerves in their first inning) and his performance wasn’t that bad. He didn’t issue any walks after the first two batters and allowed just four hits in the final four innings. Granted, all but one hit he allowed tonight was an extra-base hit, but there is promise there that he could become a quality starting pitcher in good time.
The problem is the Angels don’t have any time. The next time this spot in the rotation comes up again, it will be against the Texas Rangers, and the Angels can’t risk running Richards out there for such a big game when all they have to rely upon is the hope that he learned a lot from this one start. They’ll have to find someone else, I find him fast so that they have a fighting chance against the Rangers.
As for Garrett, better luck next year.
Game Notes
- It was awfully nice of Joel Pineiro to step in with a relief appearance that was terrible enough to make sure nobody got any wild ideas that he might be ready to return to active rotation duty after his brief banishment.
- Can we please submit a moratorium on Erick Aybar batting leadoff now that his OBP has finally dipped under .300? Thanks, I’m glad we had this talk.
- Was that a Russ Branyan sighting tonight? I had almost forgotten he was on the team still.
Halo A-Hole
I don’t want to be mean to Garrett Richards and give him the A-Hole Award in his big league debut, so I’ll just blame Mathis for no apparent reason. I’m sure he is used to the abuse by now.