Encouraging signs for Canning in return to mound

ANAHEIM -- Before he threw his first pitch in the Majors in 649 days, right-hander Griffin Canning closed his eyes, took a deep breath and exhaled.

It helped Canning clear his mind and focus on his first start with the Angels since July 2, 2021, after missing all of last season with a stress fracture in his lower back. Canning didn’t factor into the decision in the Halos’ 3-2 win over the Nationals on Wednesday afternoon at Angel Stadium, but he pitched mostly well, allowing two runs on five hits with four strikeouts over five innings.

“I was prepared. I had been working for the last year and a half for this moment,” said Canning, who had a large group of family and friends at the game to support him. “I felt ready. I’m just excited to be back out there.”

It was an encouraging sign for Canning, who was reinstated from the injured list before the game after dealing with a left groin strain late in Spring Training. His velocity was right in line with his career average, and he relied heavily on his slider, which helped him register six of his respectable 15 swing-and-misses.

Canning, 26, is trying to show he's the same pitcher who demonstrated promise as a rookie in 2019 and was one of the club's better starters with a 3.99 ERA during the shortened ‘20 season. He will stay in the rotation with lefty Tucker Davidson remaining in the bullpen as a long reliever. Canning’s next start will come in New York against the Yankees.

“I thought his stuff was good,” manager Phil Nevin said. “Not a lot of great swings. The fourth inning there, they put some barrels on the ball. Ground balls through the hole and punching line drives to right. But that’s going to happen. His ride and horizontal movement was right in line with what we saw all spring.”

After taking that deep breath before his first pitch, Canning retired the first batter he faced, getting Alex Call to fly out to center field on a 94-mph fastball. But it was a bit of a sign of what was to come, as the ball was hit hard, leaving the bat at 102.5 mph.

Canning had good control and didn’t walk any batters, but his biggest issue was allowing hard contact. He allowed five batted balls with an exit velocity of at least 95 mph, and while he was able to escape some early jams, that hard contact hurt him in the fourth inning.

He allowed four straight singles to open the inning -- with exit velocities of 88.6 mph, 103.2 mph, 105 mph and 93.8 mph -- but then he got Luis García to ground out to short before striking out Lane Thomas and CJ Abrams to escape further trouble.

“It was good to have some traffic and work my way out of it,” Canning said. “My two bad pitches were hanging a slider to [Dominic] Smith and [Joey] Meneses, as well. To limit it to two, it was a good thing.”

He went back out for the fifth inning and responded by throwing a 1-2-3 frame on just six pitches before being removed at 69 pitches (49 strikes).

​​"To go out for the fifth and have that quick and efficient of an inning, I felt good taking him out there,” Nevin said. “It was his first game back in two years. We were lined up in the bullpen, and it worked out, but I’m really happy for him. Coming in, you could see it on his face after that fifth. I told him, ‘Congrats, welcome back.’”

Canning was backed offensively by an unlikely source, as Brett Phillips made his first start of the year in center field and made the most of his opportunity. He was 0-for-34 with a walk against lefties last year, but he drew two critical walks against Nationals lefty MacKenzie Gore.

Phillips led off the third with a walk, promptly stole second and then stole third and scored on a throwing error from catcher Keibert Ruiz. And in the fourth, Phillips worked a full count with the bases loaded against Gore and drew a walk to tie the game at 2-2. He also made a running catch at the fence to rob Ruiz of extra bases in the sixth.

“When it's my turn to play, things can't skip a beat,” Phillips said. “We got the best lineup in the game. So for myself, it's just a matter of putting together good ABs, taking some walks, not trying to do too much. I feel like I had a really good plan today.”