Scary moment in Garrett Richards encouraging return for Angels
Scary moment in Garrett Richards encouraging return for Angels:- The encouraging comeback, the pioneering treatment, even the direction of the Los Angeles Angels’ season seemed threatened as Garrett Richards walked off the mound in the fifth inning Wednesday night alongside the team’s trainer.
Richards had looked sharp in his first start since May 1, hitting 98 mph on the stadium radar gun and holding the Oakland Athletics to three hits over 4 2/3 innings in the Angels’ eventual 5-0 victory.
But as he headed to the dugout, having rubbed the area around his elbow, it was impossible not to think of the ligament tear that had ended Richards’ 2016 season after one month and jeopardized his career.
The elbow apparently is fine. The Angels announced later that Richards had left the game for precautionary reasons after experiencing cramping in his right biceps. No need to panic, at least for now.
"It’s nothing serious," said Richards, who felt tightness over his last 5-6 pitches. "My arm feels good. I felt good tonight. The elbow feels fine, the shoulder feels fine. It was just kind of a long inning and it stiffed up a little bit, but nothing to be worried about."
Richards’ arm passed a strength test after he left the game, and manager Mike Scioscia said there are no plans for him to have an MRI exam, although he’ll get checked after the club returns home following Thursday’s matinee.
Still, there figures to be some concern about the status of Richards’ elbow for several weeks if not months, because he didn’t follow the standard approach to fixing ligament tears, which is undergoing Tommy John surgery.
Instead, he went with a novel treatment in which stem cells from bone marrow in his pelvis were injected into the affected area to promote natural healing, with a shot of platelet-rich plasma as a follow-up a few months later. Teammate Andrew Heaney also tried stem-cell treatment and it didn’t work for him, so he eventually had the elbow-reconstruction operation and is out for this season.
Richards did not return to the active roster last year, but pitched in an instructional league in October and made it through spring training healthy. He was dominant at times against the A's on Wednesday, striking out the side in the second inning — one batter on a slider, the next one on a fastball and the third on a curveball — and walking just one.
"Garrett was throwing the ball very well," Scioscia said. "It was coming out hot, had good movement, the slider, the curveball were there. That’s a great first step for Garrett and hopefully he’ll be back out there his next start to keep moving forward."
The Angels, looking to bounce back from a 74-88 record in an injury-wracked season, desperately need Richards to return to his form of 2014-15, when he went a combined 28-16 with a 3.18 ERA. While it might be unfair to expect the 28-year-old right-hander to carry the burden of a staff ace after throwing just 34 2/3 innings last season, he’s clearly the club’s most talented starter.
Richards has the highest average fastball velocity in the American League (96.1 mph) since the start of the 2014 season. Not coincidentally, he has allowed the AL’s lowest batting average (.222) in that period.
With Heaney and fellow starter Nick Tropeano sidelined while recovering from Tommy John procedures, the Angels' rotation has plenty of question marks. Richards provides an emphatic answer if he can continue to unleash his repertoire anywhere as effectively as he did in that impressive second inning.
"It’s something I’ve been working on, finding a better feel for all three of those pitches," Richards said. "It all comes back to me trying to be more efficient this year. If I can throw four pitches for strikes, it’s going to be tough. That’s my main focus, to throw everything for strikes."
Source:- https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2017/04/06/garrett-richards-return-gives-angels-scare/100111086/
