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Sam Kennedy praises MLB’s substance rules, says Red Sox pitchers must ‘figure it out’

After a forgettable outing Wednesday, Red Sox pitcher Garrett Richards acknowledged baseball’s recent crackdown on sticky substances has affected his performance on the mound.

“It has changed pretty much everything for me,” Richards said. “It’s changed a lot for me…I feel like I need to be a different pitcher than I have been the last nine-and-a-half years.”

The Boston starter went on to discuss the challenges of learning of to “throw a baseball on the fly” and adjust his mechanics during the mid-season shakeup brought on by complaints about pitchers overusing substance to improve spin on their pitches.