The Angels announced tonight that right-hander Garrett Richards exited the game due to tightness in his left hamstring, while Zack Cozart departed early due to a strained left shoulder. As Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register writes, Richards’ fastball velocity was down nearly three miles per hour from its usual levels before he exited the game following a two-run second inning for the Mariners. Richards is slated for an MRI tomorrow. Cozart, meanwhile, incurred his injury while making a diving attempt at shortstop and said after the game that his shoulder “separated or popped out a little bit” upon hitting the ground. It’s not the first time he’s had that type of issue happen, he adds, and he’ll be examined further tomorrow.
Some more injury news from around the game…
- Orioles lefty Richard Bleier suffered an arm injury in Wednesday night’s game, which manager Buck Showalter suggested could be related to his left lat muscle (link via MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko). The injury was immediately apparent, as Bleier winced on his follow-through, dropped his glove and immediately began clutching at his shoulder (video link). Bleier already had an x-ray taken Wednesday night, and he’s headed for an MRI on Thursday. While there won’t be an update until that test is complete and the results have been viewed by doctors, but Bleier said that there was “no question” that he was unable to make another pitch, calling the pain “severe” and adding that he’s never experienced that type of injury. While the 31-year-old lefty is hardly a household name, he has a superlative 1.93 ERA on the season and, in fact, has a sub-2.00 ERA for his entire career — a span of 119 innings dating back to his 2016 debut with the Yankees.
- Drew Pomeranz has been on the shelf for nearly two weeks, but the Red Sox lefty doesn’t sound especially close to returning. WEEI’s Rob Bradford tweets that Pomeranz says the pain in his arm has mostly dissipated, but he has limited mobility in his neck, which is still preventing him from even throwing. Pomeranz, 29, originally hit the DL due to tendinitis in his left biceps, though it would appear that he’s experiencing additional discomfort at this point. Knuckleballer Steven Wright has stepped into Pomeranz’s spot in the rotation and tossed 13 2/3 shutout innings in two starts.
- The Padres announced tonight that outfielders Wil Myers and Franchy Cordero and left-hander Joey Lucchesi are all set to begin minor league rehab assignments tomorrow. San Diego has been without Myers since April 29 due to a left oblique strain, while Cordero has been out since late May due to a forearm strain. In the absence of both corner outfielders, the Friars have been utilizing a mix of Travis Jankowski, rookie Franmil Reyes, Manuel Margot, Hunter Renfroe and Matt Szczur in the outfield, though the impending return of both Myers and Cordero will shuffle that arrangement. Myers has taken just 40 plate appearances with the big league club this season, hitting .300/.300/.450, while Cordero hit .237/.307/.439 through 154 PAs and began to draw some notoriety for his prodigious home run distances and exit velocities on Statcast. As for Lucchesi, he was among the most impressive rookie pitchers in all of baseball through his first nine starts, pitching to a 3.23 ERA with a 48-to-15 K/BB ratio and a 43.8 percent ground-ball rate in 47 1/3 innings. He’s been out since May 15 due to a hip strain.
Well on the plus side, at least it isn’t yet another elbow injury for the Angels pitching corps
Or is it? And their not telling you he truth?
With this organization you are correct, that is actually a strong possibility.
Velocity down 3 mph huh…..somethings up!
Velocity doesn’t just come from your arm. You can’t throw as hard with a hamstring injury. I suppose it could ultimately lead to an arm injury if it forces him to change his mechanics
It’s no fun being a fan of a team with often injured players. Here the thing with the Angels…. injuries or no injuries this team is not very good. Unfortunately sometimes that’s just how it is.
Maybe the past Angels’ teams, but not this one. When they were at/near 100%, they actually led the AL West.
With 162 games a year every team is to hopefully have at least one hot streak a year. The Angels hot streak just so happened from the start this year, and good for them. Unfortunately they did not have the team to keep it up.
Indeed. Oh how the mighty have fallen.
Yea, where’s the “Angels are must watch TV” guy?
“Yea, where’s the “Angels are must watch TV” guy?”
Ohtani? He’s on the DL. Injured. But doesn’t make what he’s accomplished, any less impressive. It was too bad, considering he was doing things, again reiterate — haven’t been done in 100+ years.
Was disappointed I couldn’t watch him pitch against NYY, when LAA skipped his start against Tanaka.
I’m looking forward to seeing him make 100% recovery.
Wasn’t referring to you as the must watch TV guy. I was referring to the Angels poster who declared them the most exciting team and a runaway in the West, not to mention his takes on the Astros “just not being that good”…all of this in April.
Such an uniformed post. Unfortunately, trolling the Angels appears to be his full-time occupation.
That is true, but it is not convincing. I don’t think there were many people around saying that the Angels, with a 100% healthy roster were better than the Astors. Plus, we didn’t need the help of Nostradamus to tell us that at least two of their starting pitchers would go down due to injury. Ohtani’s injury isn’t surprising, neither is Shoemaker’s, and, like other players who have chosen not to have TJ, every time Richard’s throws a pitch you hold your breath. They have been bit bad by the injury bug, but that is not news. Fans cannot complain about injuries when their team has so many players with terrible injury histories. When you sign/have players who are injury prone then you have to expect injuries, and that has been the Angel’s story for years. I like Cozart as a player, he’s good, but I think most fans knew last year was a career year in a hitters ballpark, and Kinsler, one of my guys, is better than he has been, but not who he used to be. The team had big question marks from the start. I tend to think that as long as they have Trout they will try and contend, but they will never be true contenders (at least not for rings) until they rebuild. Plus, I think they have an owner who doesn’t know his own limitations.
Sorry for the lecture. I rarely make such long posts.
The Angels top-4 starters to begin the year (Richards, Heaney, Skaggs, Othani) had about as many combined starts from 2016-17 (44) as their 5th guy did over the same 2 year stretch (41) – and that 5th guy missed 2/3rds of last season with the same injury he has now.
Then they had a sixth guy (Tropeano) they wanted to quickly get back in the Rotation too after he missed all of last season
All of them were a major injury risk, and the Angels organization seems to be helping to ensure the injuries do infact happen.
These problems should come as a surprise to no one, especially with regards to the pitchers
You first paragraph is fairly shocking, but not surprising. I’m not hating on the team, but it started off as a house of cards and over 162 there will always be wind. I’m not saying they can’t compete, just that they need everything to go right, whereas other teams have the depth so that they can whither the storms.
Not time for panic quite yet. Every team has it hot and cold streaks and the Halos are no different. (prior to this 4 game slide we had won 5 in a row) Don’t see any reason to give up so early in the campaign with a wild card spot being a reasonable possibility. Need some BP help and a competent RF for the strech run. Fortunately options for both should be obtainable at the deadline
Problem is, they’ll only be the second Wildcard spot open with the Red Sox and Yankees filling one of those spots. The Angels have next to nothing to acquire BP help or like you said a “competent RF”. The Twins will pick it back up and the Mariners are surprisingly better then expected. Take a look at the Angels Apr-May schedule and you can see how they jumped out to that record. Maybe a soft rebuild for this team is warranted…
Votto and the Reds. Trout and the Angels. Amazing talent. Moreso Trout, of course. Wasting away in these organizations.
Um…are you comparing Votto to Mike Trout? Trout is basically the best player who has ever played baseball. Votto is really good, but nothing like Trout.
Stop it with this “best player to have ever played baseball” junk you’ve been throwing out all over the place. Give the guy a few more years to even say anything in a historical context.
Trout is amazing but with the way the game has changed, it is not fair to try to compare different generations. Same is said in other sports. Both are HOF bound. Enough said on that subject. What remains unfair is that in the last twenty years, the game has changed so much and they need to better address HOF voting. Too many younger voters in my view.
Yea that Soto kid for the Nats is gonna hit 800 homers. WTF
Trout had 4 HR, went 7-for-11, in that 3 game series against Tampa Bay, but LAA was still swept.
Should LAA be concerned?
Seattle?
100% meant Seattle*. I’m Sorry, Seattle is a better team than Tampa Bay, but SEA has been on fire lol
Yeah it was pretty much the Mariners vs Mike Trout. Dudes amazing and gives the M’s headaches every time they play each other.
The Ohtani injury hurts big time but how many really expected the Angel’s or the Mets to be leading their respective divisions one month in?
Richards was at 0.2 WAR so he’s interchangeable at this point. What puts a big dent in the Angels’ playoff hopes is losing Ohtani and Simmons. Ohtani was on pace for about a 5 WAR when he went down, and Simmons was on pace for about 8-9 WAR went he went down. That’s a boat load of win value to be losing from just two players. Angels had the team they needed going into this season, with the bullpen becoming the only real concern. But based on WAR, losing Ohtani and Simmons long term could mean the Angels are likely done.
With Cozart going down yesterday, that will allow Fletcher to move to SS. And allow him the opportunity, to prove if he is ready to be, an everyday major league player yet or not. The Ohtani injury hurts the most right now.
Reading BBREF WAR numbers don’t exactly tell you the value of the player. Do you really believe a guy like Richards who was tossing up a mid 3’s ERA value was that low to the Halos this year?
The Padres are a bit of a sleeper team this year. With some added run production they could end up with a .500 record. They are already close, and that’s a lot better than anybody expected.
I suspect I’ll get a lot of hate on this. but how much of that Padres success from this year do you believe is long term? That bullpen has been phenomenal but if they deal Stammen, Yates, and especially Hand. How many wins would that have cost this team? Tyson Ross surely isn’t a long term piece either. Not to discredit them at all, because they could choose to keep Hand and Yates. Lucchesi, Cimber, and Maton have all been impressive as well. I’d just be cautiously optimistic.