Garrett Richards suffers devastating knee injury

OH.

MY.

GOD.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

That, folks, is Garrett Richards evidently shredding his knee trying to cover first. Just a random freak accident where he apparently caught a spike, wrenched his knee and collapsed in a heap of agony. Listening to the Angels radio broadcast, Smith and Langston were in apparent shock as they described seeing “something bulge out” of Richards’ knee as they watched replays of the incident.

There is no update yet as to what the injury is, but considering Richards’ screaming reaction and inability to get off the ground until he was stretchered off eight minutes later, it is probably safe to assume that it is major. Assuming that’s the case, the Angels might have to kiss their World Series aspirations goodbye.

The Angels have enough of a lead in the Wild Card race that they should still reach the post-season (their playoff odds at Baseball Prospectus were 99.4% coming into this game), but what’s going to happen if they get there with Richards on the shelf. Jered Weaver isn’t an ace anymore. C.J. Wilson is a mess. Nobody really trusts Hector Santiago. Matt Shoemaker could turn back into a pumpkin at any moment. How is that quadrumvirate supposed to go head-to-head with the rotation of the Tigers, A’s, Mariners or even the Royals?

At this point, the only real hope is that the injury is more painful than serious. That’s probably just one of the stages of grief talking though.

This is bad. Real, real bad.