The Los Angeles Angels push to win the American League West has suffered a major blow in the form of a knee injury to ace Garrett Richards. The breakout right-hander injured his left patellar tendon covering first base Wednesday night, and Angels manager Mike Scioscia believes he's sustained "a significant injury."
"Obviously he's very distraught," Scioscia said. "He knows that it's not good, and we'll get some direction from our medical staff."
According to fellow Angels starter Jered Weaver, Richards was told before heading to a nearby hospital that he may require surgery; the typical recovery time from patellar tendon surgery is three to six months. His teammates described their emotions as they watched their top pitcher go down.
"When I saw him go down I got sick to my stomach," center fielder Mike Trout said. Richards has gone 13-4 with a 2.61 ERA in his fourth MLB season, and had recorded 164 strikeouts in 168.1 innings of work and his WHIP sits at a sparkling 1.038.
Scioscia is now trying to focus his club on the remainder of their journey to the playoffs, which will continue with or without Richards.
"We have a game tomorrow," Scioscia said. "We're going to go out there and hopefully put together enough good things to win a game. We're just going to take these games one inning at a time, one game at a time. When Garrett's spot comes up in the rotation, we'll obviously have somebody ready. We have to keep moving on."
Weaver will need to resume the ace role for L.A., and he sounded like a leader in backing up Scioscia's comments.
"He was having a tremendous season. This was a crushing blow to him. Our thoughts and prayers are with him. Hopefully it doesn't turn out as [bad] as everyone thinks it is. We've got a great team. I think everyone will rally around this."
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