Richards feels facing aces raises his game

CHICAGO — Angels starter Garrett Richards believes this is all a good thing, facing every team’s best pitcher and navigating through a razor-thin margin for error, one that is only heightened by the continual struggles of the offense behind him.

“I think it makes me a better pitcher,” Richards said after his team’s 2-1 loss to the White Sox on a damp 66-degree Wednesday afternoon at U.S. Cellular Field. “I have to be better than I was in the past. Being a No. 3 or a No. 4 in the rotation, you can kind of just go out and pitch your game. But knowing that I’m facing up against another team’s ace, I think it’s brought my game to the next level. I’m more focused.”

But he is also winless.

Richards is four starts in and doesn’t have a victory, even though he’s pitched reasonably well each time. He has been beaten by Jake Arrieta, Cole Hamels and, most recently, Chris Sale, who sliced his way through a struggling Angels lineup that mustered only two baserunners through the first seven innings.

That, basically, is life as the Opening Day starter — every five days, the other team’s ace is probably on the mound, especially in April.

Richards calls this “an important part of my development.”

The 27-year-old …

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