What Garrett Richards, Red Sox Are Doing To Get Pitcher On Track

The first couple weeks of Garrett Richards’ Boston Red Sox tenure have been bumpy at times.

Richards has had some good and not-so-good starts lately, with Wednesday’s outing against the Toronto Blue Jays falling into the latter category. He gave up four runs on as many hits with six walks, one hit batter and two strikeouts across 4 2/3 innings.

It was clear he was feeling out of sorts, and judging by how much his arm slot varied throughout the game, it appeared he was trying to work through mechanics issues.

He’s in line to get the ball again Tuesday against the New York Mets, and lately he’s been working on a few different issues with his delivery, according to Red Sox pitching coach Dave Bush.

“He’s trying to clean up his delivery a little bit, just find some more consistency,” Bush said Sunday over Zoom. “The other day he just felt off a little bit, his timing wasn’t quite right. He always throws across his body, he always has. It’s big stuff, the command comes and goes, but when gets his delivery dialed in, he’s really consistent with his leg lift, I think it syncs up and times out much better.

“So, that’s been the focus of our work in the bullpen between starts is just cleaning up the delivery, being more consistent, making sure he can stay on line and have a little better posture, and then just let the ball go and trust it’s going to be in the strike zone.”

The Red Sox have gotten largely reliable starting pitching this season, with Richards struggling more than others. Getting him on track would provide some more needed stability to the Red Sox rotation.