Griffin Canning a bright spot in Angels’ 7th straight loss

DETROIT — Griffin Canning kept the Angels in the game, and Mickey Moniak added a spark with a two-run homer off Kenta Maeda in the sixth inning. Wednesday still ended in a seventh consecutive loss, 3-2, to the Tigers at Comerica Park, matching the team’s longest losing streak since Aug. 1-7, 2023.

The Angels (54-79) have dropped 15 of their past 18 games and aren’t looking for moral victories. But there were some definite positives in this one.

Canning pitched well coming off six scoreless innings on Thursday in Toronto. So, he’s back on track after allowing seven runs on eight hits Aug. 17 against the Braves, his most runs allowed this season.

Canning (4-12) allowed three runs on five hits with four strikeouts against Detroit, but he also walked four, two of which scored, and had to reset after Spencer Torkelson crushed a two-run homer in the second inning.

“Tonight, I thought Canning did a good job of fighting,” said Angels manager Ron Washington. “He gave up those three runs in the second and third and did a good job to get us through five. If he’d given up just three runs all year, I’d have taken it. But tonight, we just didn’t put enough runs on the board to make a difference.”

The Angels have averaged two runs per game during their seven-game losing streak, and Canning has allowed four or more runs in 12 of 27 outings.

Canning was excellent against the Blue Jays — blanking them on two hits over six innings with six strikeouts and no walks. His only relief appearance of the season produced the desired results, but could Canning continue his progress during an inconsistent season?

While Wednesday’s outing was one scoreless inning shy of a quality start, it was still solid.

“I competed,” said Canning, who was 7-8 with a 4.32 ERA in 2023. “I tried to keep the team in the game.”

Canning entered the start with a 9.36 ERA in the first inning this season and a 5.18 ERA overall. He threw a scoreless first, which ended with a double play erasing Riley Greene after a leadoff single.

The eventual deciding run for Detroit came in the third after Jake Rogers walked, advanced on a wild pitch and a groundout and scored on Kerry Carpenter’s single. Canning also walked Rogers on a payoff pitch in the fourth. The Tigers catcher entered the game batting .444 with three homers and five RBIs in nine at-bats against Canning.

“I wished I’d thrown a little better,” Canning said. “A couple walks, but some of those are situational. I’d been burned by Rogers in the past, so I didn’t want to let that beat me.”

Washington said he opted to start Canning against the Tigers rather than enter him in a bulk relief role “because [Canning] wasn’t happy with” the arrangement against Toronto.

“He gave us six solid innings [against the Blue Jays], and I thought he earned the ball to show us there was never any problem with that,” Washington said.

On preferring starting, Canning said, “Obviously, I want to be out there, setting the tone for the game. I just want to keep going out there and competing, attacking the zone and [seeing] what happens from there.”

He left this game after five innings and the Angels trailing, 3-2, after Moniak punished a sweeper that broke over the heart of the plate for a Statcast-projected 409-foot homer, his ninth long ball of the season.

“That was one of my better ones,” said Moniak, who also singled for his 17th multi-hit game this season and is batting .315 (17-for-54) in August. “I knew it was gone off the bat. You catch a sweeper, and it usually goes.

“At the end of the day, I wish I could’ve done more. But I just tried to go up there and have good at-bats. This game’s a tough game, and we’ve obviously been going through it as of late. Nobody in here’s too happy about that, but the guys are grinding.”

It marked the second one-run loss during the losing streak.

“We just couldn’t scratch anything else out,” said Washington, noting that Jo Adell being tagged out after oversliding second on a stolen base took the bat out of top hitter Zach Neto’s hands for the final out of the seventh inning.

“The big blow was the stolen base that Jo attempted,” Washington added. “That was just a mistake we made.”