Garrett Richards completed his longest outing in two years, making him feel like his old self — and even better in some ways.
“It’s just fun,” Richards said Sunday. “I’m having fun playing baseball again. … It just feels good to be back out there and be pitching pain-free and executing pitches and not having to worry about things and go after guys.”
With five shutout innings in what ended up a 4-3 loss to the Diamondbacks, Richards was finally (mostly) free after three starts at the end of last season in which he had a strict pitch count.