In fact, he threw them a bunch of curves, and nearly all the pitches were effective.
Along with his strikeouts, Richards permitted the Dodgers only two hits in his four-inning start. He gave up a single to Joc Pederson and a double to Logan Forsythe in back-to-back at-bats.
Other than that, he dominated the Dodgers, largely because of his ability to locate his rediscovered curveball in and around the strike zone.
He has always had the curve. It's just that, Richards explained, he tended to abandon it when the pitch wasn't working.