Richards, Cozart exit with injuries vs. Seattle

SEATTLE -- The Angels suffered a pair of injury blows during their 8-6 loss in the series finale against the Mariners on Wednesday at Safeco Field, losing right-hander Garrett Richards to left hamstring tightness and shortstop Zack Cozart to a left shoulder strain.
Richards and Cozart will be re-evaluated on Thursday's off-day to provide more clarity on the severity of their injuries, though they voiced some optimism about their respective outlooks.

"Hopefully it's something minor and we can move forward as soon as possible," Richards said.
Richards departed his start after just two innings and threw 35 pitches in the truncated outing. He allowed two runs on four hits and struck out two before being replaced by Noé Ramirez in the third. The hamstring issue likely explains the dip in Richards' velocity during his start. Richards has averaged 96.5 mph on his fastball this season, but he averaged only 94.8 mph on Wednesday.
"It wasn't really bothering me until I got out there today," Richards said. "It's just something that was kind of preventing me from working out over my frontside. I'm getting an MRI tomorrow. Hopefully everything is not as bad as it could be."
Richards, who has logged a 3.42 ERA over 14 starts this season, is arguably the most talented pitcher in the Angels' rotation, but he has struggled to stay healthy over the last two years. Richards missed most of the 2016 season with a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, though he managed to avoid Tommy John surgery by undergoing stem-cell therapy. He returned to pitch in '17, though he was limited to six starts because of nerve irritation in his right biceps.
Cozart sustained the shoulder injury while diving for a single off the bat of Mitch Haniger in the third inning and was later replaced by pinch-hitter Nolan Fontana.
"My shoulder kind of separated or popped out a little bit when I hit the ground," Cozart said. "It's happened to me before. We'll find out more tomorrow when we do some tests on it."
Cozart said he only missed a few days the last time he dealt with a similar injury.
"I don't like having anything like this because this kind of stuff affects your swing and everything there is about baseball, really," Cozart said. "Hopefully I get good news tomorrow and there's just some inflammation or something in there and we'll go from there."
The Angels are already without starting shortstop Andrelton Simmons, who landed on the disabled list on June 6 with a Grade 2 right ankle sprain.