It all seemed swell. In his first time on a major league mound in 11 months, Garrett Richards was dominating Oakland. A groundout to begin the bottom of the fifth inning made it 11 consecutive Athletics batters the Angels’ right-hander had retired on Wednesday at the Oakland Coliseum.
And then it went awry, not terribly, but quickly. He lost command of two breaking balls and his fastball velocity dipped. After Richards’ first pitch to Matt Joyce, Angels catcher Martin Maldonado jogged to the mound, asked the pitcher a question, and signaled to the dugout for a trainer to visit.