Clinton County crowd backs Mater Dei grad Trevor Richards in his Busch Stadium debut

Pitching at Busch Stadium for the first time as a pro was a little different than Trevor Richards had envisioned it.

In the mind's eye of a high school kid from tiny Aviston, he was wearing the home whites with the embroidered birds on the bats across his chest. Instead, Richards wore the road gray of the Miami Marlins, and took the 4-1 loss against the Cardinals on Thursday.

Still, pitching at Busch Stadium was a dream come true for the graduate of Mater Dei Catholic High School in Breese, as well as for the family and friends who made the drive from Clinton County to see him make his third professional start.

"As a kid,we came to a lot of Cardinals games, and I was a Cardinals fan growing up," the soft-spoken Richards said. "I got to pitch here in high school once in an all-star game, so it wasn't my first time on the mound here, but there was a different atmosphere this time around."

Richards was hit hard early, surrendering three first-inning hits, including a 388-foot home run by Cardinals first baseman Jose Martinez that put Miami behind for the rest of the day.

But he settled into a groove, facing just one more than the minimum in the second through fifth innings. Marlins manager Don Mattingly went to the bullpen in the sixth after Richards allowed hits to Tommy Pham and Martinez to lead off the inning.

Mattingly was happy with the rookie's start, even though the Marlins' loss prevented a series sweep of the Cardinals.

"There was the Martinez homer, but after that, he continued to attack the strike zone, kept his pitch count down and kept us in the game to give us a chance," Mattingly said. "I thought he was pretty good."

Richards father, Terry, made the same assessment.

"I was really hoping he'd get through the six innings, but he did a great job," he said, "He settled in there, got a couple of strikeouts, so overall it was a good outing back."

Richards was recalled from the triple-A New Orleans Baby Cakes to make Thursday's start. About 200 or so fans from Clinton County got tickets on short notice, many of them behind the Marlins dugout on the first base side. Theresa and Terry Richards, were among them, as was his high school coach, Travis Gebke.

That corner of Busch Stadium gave Richards a solid ovation each time he took the mound or stepped to the plate. He remembered to tip his cap their way as he walked toward the Marlins dugout in the sixth.

Members of the Miami media asked Richards after the game if starting in front of the hometown fans was like making his big-league debut all over again. Richards said "not necessarily," adding that he has some jitters before any start.

"Kind of the same feelings being in St. Louis and having a lot of family and friends coming to see me," he said. "I wouldn't say the jitters were gone. It was just excitement.

"But when I got taken out of the game, I heard the crowd, and that was pretty cool. It was quite the experience."

Mattingly said his early impression of the right-hander is that he pitches with a generally cool demeanor. He saw that quality again Thursday.

"He seems pretty settled, honestly. He always looks like that," Mattingly said. "Maybe he was roiling on the inside, I'm not sure. But he looked like he kept his composure out there, and things weren't going too fast, it didn't look like."

Richards has been one of baseball's feel-good stories over the past season and a half.

He got few looks from college recruiters coming out of Mater Dei and landed at NCAA Division II Drury University, a small, liberal arts school in Springfield, Missouri. Richards then lasted a half a season with the Gateway Grizzlies of the independent Frontier League before being discovered by the Marlins and signed as an undrafted free agent in July 2016.

Barely a year later, he was named Miami's Minor League Pitcher of the Year and earned his first major-league start against the Boston Red Sox in May. He's made two starts since, Thursday's included, and is still looking for his first win.

"I think he's done a great job," said his mother, Theresa Richards. "We're very proud of him."

This story was originally published June 7, 2018 at 5:46 PM with the headline "Clinton County crowd backs Mater Dei grad Trevor Richards in his Busch Stadium debut."