Boston Red Sox pitcher Garrett Richards found himself in a jam 23 pitches into his spring training debut on Monday.
Richards had effectively walked in a run, and the Atlanta Braves drove in another to take a mid 2-0 lead. The bases were as yet stacked.
So the Red Sox finished the inning.
On account of another standard implemented by Major League Baseball for this spring training, Boston had the option to cut the cord on Atlanta’s half of the first after Richards threw 20 pitches. Thus, the Braves scored just twice, and Richards returned out for the second inning. In the second, Atlanta went down 1-2-3.
The harm was done, notwithstanding — the Braves beat the Red Sox 5-3. Richards pitched only two innings, getting done with a strike out and a walk.
Gotten some information about the new guideline after the game, Richards called the exhibition “building blocks.”
“Obviously, you want to finish it and you want to make all the outs that your outing requires,” he said. “So, yeah, it was a little frustrating.”
Richards signed with the Red Sox toward the beginning of February. In his debut, he said he battled with control.
“By all means, not happy about it,” he said. “Today’s outing is not what you’re going to see from me on a regular basis, I’ll tell you that right now. I just needed to stay a little bit more in competitive mode versus mechanical mode. So once that switch kind of flipped, everything kind of felt great again.”