Last night in Boston the Los Angeles Angels took a huge blow to their starting rotation. Garrett Richards was running to cover first base after a ground ball was hit to Albert Pujols and the right-hander fell to the ground and grabbed his left knee in obvious pain.
According to Angels manager Mike Scioscia, Richards suffered a "significant injury" to his left patellar tendon and will fly back to Los Angeles on Thursday for further examination by team doctors. This is terrible news for the AL West division leaders who have been battling with the Oakland Athletics for the best record in baseball. Richards has been the ace of the Angels starting rotation, posting a 13-4 record with a 2.61 ERA and 1.04 WHIP.
Richards is ranked 8th in the league for WHIP, 9th in wins, 13th in ERA, 13th in strikeouts, and 15th in innings pitched. The 26-year-old surprised many with his performance this season - his fourth with the Angels and his first as a full-time starter. Unfortunately, he's likely to miss the rest of the season and longer (pending results from team doctors), as we saw earlier this week that Carlos Gonzalez is expected to miss at least five months after undergoing surgery on his left patellar tendon.
"I was actually walking off and listening to him scream in pain," said Red Sox catcher David Ross, who was running to second base when Richards went to cover first, in this ESPN article. "I got pretty sick to my stomach, as you can tell. That's a grown man out there screaming. Not a good feeling."
The team may want to explore a trade for another starting pitcher to continue their success atop the MLB and avoid making the playoffs as a wild card team. The Phillies have been open to trade talks for Cole Hamels, but they apparently want too much for him; Texas Rangers ace Yu Darvish just cleared waivers earlier this week and can be traded to any team in the league, but the team's willingness is unknown; and the Mets were willing to deal Bartolo Colon prior to the deadline, and left-hander Jonathon Niese also cleared waivers last week.
The New York Yankees know how it feels to lose their ace. In early July, the team was struck with bad news that the newly acquired Masahiro Tanaka sustained a partially torn UCL and would have to undergo extensive rehab before he can pitch at full speed again. The Japanese right-hander has been making strides in his progress, especially in the month of August, when he threw soft toss a few weeks ago and hurled ten pitches off of a mound last week. On Wednesday, Tanaka threw 35 pitches - including five splitters - in what was considered a successful bullpen session.
"I feel that I've gotten the health to the point where the elbow is fine now," said Tanaka, in this ESPN article. Manager Joe Girardi said Tanaka will pitch in a simulated game and then make some rehab starts before he returns to the rotation, but it's unknown when that will happen.
