Canning turns in solid outing while kids strut their stuff
ANAHEIM -- All Griffin Canning has done since returning to the starting rotation on Aug. 27 is show the kind of potential that has the Angels encouraged about his future.
This upward trend continued in Friday night’s 6-3 loss to the Guardians at Angel Stadium, as Canning threw 5 1/3 innings, scattering eight hits, allowing three runs, walking two and striking out three.
Command issues in the early going doomed Canning’s pitch count, which eclipsed 90 with one out in the sixth. Pitch count is something to consider with the right-hander, who has now totaled 110 innings in 21 appearances this season (19 starts).
Canning is on the cusp of surpassing his career high in innings pitched in a single season (113 1/3 in the Minors in 2018), and has logged a particularly heavy load for much of 2023.
“Well, I thought he threw the ball very well,” said manager Phil Nevin of Canning’s outing as a whole, though the skipper did note that the high pitch count and command issues were partly behind the decision to lift him in the sixth.
“He didn’t throw a lot of strikes, for one,” said Nevin. “When you throw strikes like he did the other day, he’s going to get a lot of outs. And that’s the learning part of it, controlling your anxiety, controlling your emotions and letting it slow down. That’s the case with a lot of young players.”
“I didn’t have great fastball command,” admitted Canning, who totaled 56 strikes to 36 balls among his 92 pitches. “I just kind of had to mix and match.”
Lefty Kolton Ingram came out of the bullpen in relief of Canning and immediately ran into trouble. A single, a sac fly and three walks quickly inflated Cleveland’s 2-1 lead into a 4-1 advantage, Ingram tallying 25 pitches in the inning -- but only eight strikes.
“It's a learning process for a lot of these guys,” explained Nevin behind calling on Ingram when he did. “I’ve got to put them in situations that are tough. Tonight, it didn’t work out for him.”
On the offensive side of things, the Angels were absent Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, reigning AL Player of the Week Luis Rengifo, Anthony Rendon and Mickey Moniak, with some of the organization’s most promising young players taking their hacks instead.
Nolan Schanuel (the Angels’ current No. 1 prospect, per MLB Pipeline), Logan O’Hoppe (their previous No. 1 prospect), Jordyn Adams (No. 15) and Kyren Paris (No. 5) comprised 44% of the club’s offensive attack against Cleveland’s Logan Harris and a handful of relievers.
And while that’s representative of where the Angels are at this point in what’s been a frustrating season, it provides a chance for these young hitters to audition for the future.
For O’Hoppe, his first full season in the Majors was derailed with a torn labrum sustained in April, but the 23-year-old catcher has made his presence felt since returning on Aug. 18. In 16 games, O’Hoppe has hit .261/.320/.565 with three homers, the latest of which came on Friday when he turned around an inside sinker from Nick Sandlin in the sixth inning. At the time, it gave the Angels a bit of life, clawing them back to within 4-3.
O’Hoppe’s two-run blast soared a projected 428 feet over the left-center-field fence, the longest home run of his burgeoning career, per Statcast.
A third-inning walk to Schanuel extended his franchise-best on-base streak to 17 games to begin his career, though he was otherwise hitless on the night and exited in the ninth with what Nevin characterized as “tightness” in his shoulder blade/trapezius area (though Nevin didn’t deem it a significant concern).
Adams, recalled earlier in the day for his second stint with the Angels this season, notched a sacrifice fly, blooped a single to left field for his third Major League hit, and came a few feet short of his first career homer with a 363-foot fly ball against Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase in the ninth.
With Trout’s return still in question and Ohtani remaining a day-to-day designation for the Angels, they could very well trot out lineups like Friday’s for the remaining few weeks of the schedule in order to see what they’ve got for 2024 and beyond.
“Hopefully,” Canning said of the fight the mostly inexperienced Angels offense showed on Friday, “we can see this core of young guys come up, show what they can do, and roll into next year with them having some confidence.”