ANGELS
Richards out for season
The Angels’ pennant hopes were dealt a serious blow Wednesday night when Garrett Richards, their best pitcher this season, suffered a patellar injury to his left knee against the Boston Red Sox in Fenway Park.
With runners on first and second and one out in the second inning, Brock Holt hit a grounder to first baseman Albert Pujols, who spun and fired to second for a force out.
Richards, a former Arkansas Traveler, sprinted from the mound toward first to receive a relay from shortstop Erick Aybar, but as he approached the bag he caught his right cleat in the dirt, and his knee buckled. Richards crumpled to the ground, where he remained for about eight minutes while athletic trainers worked to mobilize his leg.
The entire Angels team circled around the right-hander as he was placed on a stretcher and carted off the field.
Doctors won’t know the full extent of the injury until Richards is further examined.
Richards, 26, entered Wednesday night’s game with a 13-4 record, 2.53 ERA, 164 strikeouts and 50 walks in 167 innings. He had a 1.79 ERA with 100 strikeouts in 14 starts since June 4 and had held opponents to a .195 average on the season, tied with Felix Hernandez for the lowest mark in the American League.
The Angels, who have the best record in baseball, already had virtually no margin for injury in their rotation after losing left-hander Tyler Skaggs, who underwent season-ending Tommy John surgery on Aug. 13.
Their best options at Class AAA Salt Lake are left-hander Wade LeBlanc, who is 10-3 with a 4.00 ERA in 21 starts, left-hander Randy Wolf, who is 5-2 with a 4.68 ERA in 11 starts or right-hander Chris Volstad, who is 2-1 with a 5.45 ERA.
Another potential option is Travs left-hander Michael Roth, who is 10-6 with a 2.82 ERA and pitched well in a mop-up role Aug. 2 in Tampa Bay, when he saved the Angels bullpen by throwing 4 2/3 solid innings in a 10-3 loss.
GIANTS
Game resumes today
CHICAGO — The San Francisco Giants have won their protest filed with Major League Baseball and will get to resume a rain-shortened game the Chicago Cubs thought they had won.
MLB said it is the first successful protest since 1986.
MLB executive Joe Torre ruled Wednesday on a game at Wrigley Field played the previous night. That game was called after 4 1/2 innings, and the Cubs were declared the winner by a 2-0 score.
The game had been delayed more than 4 1/2 hours because of rain after the grounds crew couldn’t put the tarp down quickly.
MLB ruled that tarp had not been properly put away after its previous use, and therefore there was a “malfunction of a mechanical field device under control of the home club.”
Because of that, it is now a suspended game that will resume at 4:05 p.m. Central today. The playoff-contending Giants and Chicago will play their regularly scheduled game three hours later.