RICHARDS HAVING ‘FUN’ AGAIN
Garrett Richards completed his longest outing in two years, making him feel like his old self — and even better in some ways.
“It’s just fun,” Richards said Sunday. “I’m having fun playing baseball again. … It just feels good to back out there and be pitching painfree and executing pitches and not having to worry about things and go after guys.”
With five shutout innings in what ended up a 4-3 loss to the Diamondbacks, Richards was finally free after three starts at the end of last season in which he had a strict pitch count.
Richards threw 51⁄3 innings on July 4, 2018, for the Angels. He went just 22⁄3 innings in his next start, which would be his last for a while. Two weeks later, he underwent Tommy John surgery and didn’t pitch again until last September.
Richards is clearly more comfortable and, predictably, has more command than in what essentially were major league rehab starts in 2019.
He got 11 misses on 22 swings and struck out five Sunday.
In particular, the slider that has distinguished him during his career and a refined curveball were mostly baffling to the Diamondbacks. They got one hit and walked three times against Richards.
Still, just 21 of his 40 fastballs were strikes. Of his 73 total pitches, 48 were strikes.
“I wasn’t as sharp as I’d like to be,” he said. “It’s definitely trending in the right direction. Once we get more games under our belt, things are going to start locking in a little more. … I thought I did a good job of working with what I have today.”
Richards, who went to his curve just 5.7 percent of the time from 2011 through 2018, threw it 10 times (13.7 percent) Sunday. It got him five of his outs and three misses on four swings.
“After having Tommy John and being able to start over with my mechanics and have that amount of time in the bullpen to work on it,”
Richards said, “it’s really become a very, very comfortable pitch for me.”
Richards extended an excellent string at the start of the season by the Padres starters. Chris Paddack did not allow a run in six innings Friday, and Dinelson Lamet yielded one run Saturday.
Only the Rangers’ first three starters have yielded just one run, but they have totaled just 12 innings to the Padres trio’s 16.
“You’re looking at three dudes that could easily have opened (the season) for us,” Richards said. “It’s not a bad problem to have. I don’t think teams are going to be excited to come in here and face us the first three days or three out of four. We’re pitching with our hair on fire, and we’re ready to go.”
It was at least mildly surprising Richards was pulled after he got through Sunday’s fourth inning on nine pitches and the fifth on 13 pitches.
Manager Jayce Tingler acknowledged he got away with leaving Dinelson in one batter too long Saturday. He didn’t push Richards today.
“We debated it,” Tingler said.
“I understand what we’re doing here,” Richards said. “We’re stretched out enough, but we’re kind of easing into it.”
Notable
Eric Hosmer’s 409-foot home run to center field was one of six fly balls he has hit this season. That’s every ball he has put in play. Hosmer’s 58.2 percent ground ball rate is highest in the majors over the past two seasons.
• Side-arming lefty Tim Hill, acquired in a trade with Kansas City on July 16, made his Padres debut. With runners on first and third with two outs in the sixth, Hill came in and struck out lefthanded hitter Kole Calhoun.
• Manny Machado, who was on first base, and Fernando Tatis Jr. executed a double steal in the seventh inning. The Padres’ seven stolen bases (including four by Tommy Pham) lead the majors.
On deck
The series finale at 1:10 p.m. today matches Diamondbacks right-hander Luke Weaver (4-3, 2.94 ERA in 2019) against Padres lefty Joey Lucchesi (10-10, 4.18 ERA in 2019).
Weaver struck out 9.7 batters per nine innings in his first year in Arizona. Weaver had a 2.51 ERA over three starts last year against the Padres.
Lucchesi beat Arizona in his lone start against them in 2019, striking out six over five shutout innings. He was 0-5 with a 6.07 ERA and a 1.42 WHIP as a rookie against the Diamondbacks.