Garrett Richards Gets Upper Hand Over 2014 AL Cy Young Winner
In an intense and vital win for the Angels last night, Garrett Richards and Corey Kluber faced off in a pitching match that fell through for Garrett Richards and showed that he had the upper hand over Cy Young Award winner, Corey Kluber.
This was not evident after a rough first inning.
The final score was 5-4 as the Angels broke their six-game loosing streak by a combination of solid pitching and strong hitting.
“Richards was tremendous”
Richards, a five-year returning veteran with the Angels, currently holds a 11-8 record and a 3.46 ERA with 102 strikeouts in 20 games.
Kluber, also a five-year returning veteran with the Indians, currently holds a 6-12 record and a 3.60 ERA with 176 strikeouts in 23 games.
So, we gather that these men are on level playing ground when it comes to stats based on the fact that they have the same amount of playing-time and very similar numbers.
What separates the two is their progressive, career stats which show that in the long run, Richards proves to be a more stable and more reliable player than Kluber.
Even though Kluber has a 3.41 career ERA compared to Richards’ 3.61 ERA, Richards comes out on top because he has given up only 40 home runs and 477 career hits, while Kluber has given up 50 home runs and 592 hits.
The long-run stats prove the quality of a player. If they are stable and reliable in the time they are given to play the game, they show what kind of a player the individual is.
As we look back on both these players stats year-by-year, we can gather that each player has gradually developed their arm over the past five seasons.
Kluber, who started off as a shaky rookie, had a notable 8.31 ERA in only 3 games, allowing 4 ER and 6 hits in 4.1 innings in 2011.
Richards, who also had a rough rookie year, pitched 14 innings with 16 hits and 9 runs, while he held a 5.79 ERA.
What we see here is that Richards was given more of an opportunity his rookie year than Kluber, because the Angels are always in need of help when it comes to pitching.
But, we also see that in the time he had, Richards was a more consistent player.
All the stats and nitty-gritty details aside, these two men are both outstanding starting pitchers for their respective teams and they have earned the respect of the league based on their performance in the game.
Being a good player doesn’t mean that you put up all the outstanding stats all the time, it means that you have a deep respect for the game and in return, the game respects you – primarily by financial means.
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So, as a final analysis, I conclude that both Richards and Kluber are great ball players and have had decent seasons thus far, but this season Richards has come out on top.
This may be that Richards has a great line of defense and offense behind him including Mike Trout, Cole Calhoun, and Erick Aybar, and the fact that the halos are in second place while the Indians remain in last.
Now, both Richards and Kluber are faced with the challenge of coming out in their next appearance with the task of ironing out their shortcomings.
For Richards, he needs to build up his early on, so that he has a foundation for the later game especially since the Angels will be without C.J. Wilson.
For Kluber, he needs to have that solid offense behind him who failed to put up any runs last night between the second and seventh innings.