Astros to Face the Angels Returning Ace Garrett Richards

With the Astros win Saturday night versus the Angels, it was a welcome sight with the ace of the Angels returning Sunday. Earlier in the week when I did my Astros in Fantasy Week 2 preview, I was unaware that Garrett Richards was returning so soon. I assumed that it would be Matt Shoemaker to face the Astros on Sunday. Is facing Richards going to be better for the Astros instead of facing Shoemaker?

Richards Injury

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Last August, Garrett Richards was pitching against the Red Sox and trailing 2-0. Richards ran to first base to cover on a double play, which he had done many times before. The only difference on that occasion was that he never made it to first base. He collapsed to the ground grasping his knee, in front of the Boston home crowd. The Angels right-hander suffered a ruptured patellar tendon in his left knee. He appears to be recovered, even though he has only made one rehab start. Does this situation sound familiar Astros fans? The Astros rushed

Brad Peacock

back too, and he was placed on the DL after making just one start last week.

In his one rehab start, he happened to start against the Astros AAA affiliate Fresno. Co-editor at CTH Jason Burke wrote about the game here. Here is a summary of Richards effort from Jason’s post. “Salt Lake sent Garrett Richards to the mound in a rehab start against the Grizzlies, and the recovering Richards went five-plus innings and allowed five runs on seven hits and four walks, while striking out five.”

Richards Versus the Astros in 2014

Last year before the injury, Richards went 13-4/ 2.61 ERA/ 168 2/3 innings in 2014. He faced the Astros four times in 2014, so how did the Astros fare?

Stats from CbsSports.com,

Remember that one time at band camp? Sorry, wrong situation, how many of you remember the day that the Astros knocked around Garrett Richards. I do; I was cleaning up the game room while I watched that game. The Astros took care of business that day and scored five runs off an emerging ace.

What to Expect Versus Richards?

The Astros were mostly dominated by Richards in 2014, except for that one May start. C.J. Wilson struck out eight Astros in last night’s loss while the only struck out three times the previous night versus Jered Weaver. In 2014, Richards averaged seven strikeouts per game versus the Astros, even with the one strikeout game. Depending on his stuff in today’s game, he could get seven strikeouts versus these Astros pretty easily. Richard’s will probably be on a pitch count, so four to five innings could be as far as he goes with only having one rehab start.

Chris Carter and Jed Lowrie are the only current Astros players to have hit home runs off of Garrett Richards. Robbie Grossman and Colby Rasmus have each had some success against Richards, so look for them to start. Grossman should start anyhow because he hit a home run in last night’s game. Astros manager A.J. Hinch has said that if you hit a home run, you will automatically be starting the next game. Hopefully it goes down as another Astros win today, the first back-to-back wins of the season. After all, if our AAA team can score five runs of him, so can the Astros.

Check out my Slump Buster posts;

Don’t Wake a Sleeping Bear

Finding Carter

Next: Astros Slump Busters: George Springer

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