Canning's command troubles persist vs. A's

Mike Trout continued his recent tear with his seventh homer over his last nine games and Anthony Rendon homered for a third straight game, but the Angels were ultimately done in by Griffin Canning allowing three homers in an 8-4 loss in the series finale against the A's at Angel Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.

Canning has had trouble with his command in back-to-back starts. Last time it led to six walks in 3 2/3 innings against the Rangers, and this time he was falling behind too much in counts and he was hit hard as a result. Canning gave up five extra-base hits and nine batted balls that were hit at least 95 mph off the bat, per Statcast. The right-hander lasted four innings, surrendering four runs on six hits, and his ERA rose to 4.42 on the year.

• Box score

Angels manager Joe Maddon thought it was unusual that Canning only registered three swings and misses, and along with pitching coach Mickey Callaway, they will take a deeper look into the outing to see if he was tipping pitches.

"They weren’t chasing stuff, which they normally do," Maddon said. “I just want to look at it, I want to see what’s going on, Mickey and I talked about it. They just weren’t chasing, and they were early count hitting. I don’t know if that was their game plan and they were fortuitous, but that’s one of the things you have to look at.”

Canning wasn’t sure if he was tipping his pitches, but he did note that A’s hitters were laying off his sliders away and not swinging at much outside the zone. Canning didn’t issue a walk, which was an improvement from his last start, but he obviously has to get weaker contact in the zone going forward.

“If they're laying off pitches I feel like I normally get swings at, then maybe they are seeing something or just doing a good job executing the game plan,” Canning said. “But I feel like I'm usually on the better side of that. I do have four pitches, so I can usually kind of go to other pitches, but today I was using my changeup a lot more. Two of the home runs were just pitches that backed up over the middle.”

Canning’s troubles began in the opening frame, when he gave up a mammoth solo homer to Matt Olson with two outs. Canning fell behind, 2-0, and left a hanging slider over the plate that Olson sent a projected 454 feet, per Statcast, into one of the tunnels in right field.

Canning was again punished for falling behind in the second, giving up a leadoff double on a 3-1 fastball to Mark Canha, which was followed by a two-run homer to Robbie Grossman on a 1-1 fastball.

He got through a scoreless third inning despite allowing a two-out double to Matt Chapman on a 2-2 curveball after falling behind, 2-0. But he wasn’t as fortunate in the fourth, when he surrendered a solo shot to Stephen Piscotty on a 1-1 curveball.

“The home run to Olson was just a 2-0 cutter that I tried to backdoor that just leaked over the middle of the plate,” Canning said. “That happens. Piscotty's homer was a backup curveball, which happens. Grossman, I threw a fastball where I wanted to, up and away, and he did a pretty good job with hitting it. I still need to go back and watch it.”

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Canning entered with only one homer allowed in three starts this season and this marked just the second time he’s allowed three homers in a game in 22 career appearances. He also served up three long balls to the Orioles on May 12, 2019.

Trout’s homer came in the first inning off right-hander Chris Bassitt on a 2-2 sinker down in the zone. It was Trout’s team-leading eighth blast of the year and his seventh since returning from the paternity list to attend the birth of his first child on July 30.

Rendon went deep in the sixth on a 1-0 cutter from Bassitt to mark the second time in his career that he homered in three straight games. He also did it from May 23-25, 2017, with the Nationals.

But the Angels couldn’t quite make the comeback with Ramón Laureano robbing Brian Goodwin of a game-tying homer with a leaping grab in center field to end the seventh inning.

And the bullpen gave up three runs in the eighth, keyed by four walks.

“We did win the series, that cannot be lost in this moment,” Maddon said. “We wanted that third game. We had that opportunity. We just needed to keep them in check at one run. I really believe we had a solid chance to come back at that point. We have to do better in the bullpen more consistently.”