ANAHEIM — Although the numbers don’t show much success for Caden Dana in his second stint as a big league starter, the way he handled himself gave Ray Montgomery reason to believe the 21-year-old right-hander is going in the right direction.
Before Dana gave up five runs in a 6-1 loss to the Houston Astros in his final start of the season on Saturday, the Angels’ interim manager said he saw Dana mature this month.
“Number one, the comfort in his skin being here,” Montgomery said when asked about what has changed since he first reached the majors a year ago. “This is a very daunting thing. We forget what this is for guys at a young age, because when you have a taste of success, it doesn’t guarantee you the next day of success. It doesn’t even guarantee you the next day, period. It’s really hard for guys to put their feet planted on the ground firmly and feel like they belong.”
After Saturday’s game, Dana agreed this was a productive month in the big leagues.
“I think I learned a lot, and I feel like I can take a lot away from it,” Dana said. “I think in the aspects of pitching and carrying myself, I’m a lot more mature this year than I was last year. Just learning the game, reading swings. You know, being up here has helped a lot, and it’s helped me grow in the right direction.”
Dana began this stint in the Angels rotation with a Sept. 3 start in Kansas City. Montgomery said he could sense the pitcher had a new confidence back then.
“Talking to him in Kansas City, when he came back up, he had a sense of like, this feels like if I was pitching (in high school),” Montgomery said. “This feels like if I was pitching at Double-A. This feels like pitching. That, to me, is a very big statement for a young starter to make and understand where he is.”
Last season, Dana made three starts in September. The final two were so rough that he was sent back to the minors before the month ended. This time around, Dana finished with a quality start at Coors Field last weekend, followed by his seven-inning performance on Saturday.
“Going into spring training and his offseason, it will be completely different,” Montgomery said. “He doesn’t feel like he’s striving to get somewhere. He is somewhere, and now it’s just going to get better.”
Allowing five runs, as Dana did on Saturday, is no reason to celebrate. Neither is posting a 6.40 ERA in 32⅓ innings for the season.
The good news from Saturday was that Dana gave up all five runs on three pitches that weren’t that bad. He gave up homers to Zach Cole, Christian Walker and Jesus Sanchez, all on pitches on the edge of the strike zone.
After the third homer, he tacked on three scoreless innings.
“I think my mentality, after getting hit around a little bit, was where it needed to be from the start,” Dana said. “Just allows me to get ahead on guys and trust my stuff. There’s no second-guessing myself. You do a better job of mentally being there from the start, from pitch one to the last pitch.”
Dana finished the seventh inning for the first time in his brief big league career, getting there with just 93 pitches.
Dana struck out five and walked one.
“I actually feel a little more positive than at first when it was over, but that’s with (pitching coach Barry Enright) and (catcher Logan O’Hoppe) talking me off the ledge,” Dana said. “Overall, I think competed. A lot less walks. I was very happy about staying in the zone better. I need to clean up the little things, and I think it just comes down execution. Did a good job of filling up the zone and getting ahead on guys today.”
He also had the benefit of the Astros pulling their top three hitters before they could come to the plate a second time. The Astros were eliminated from postseason contention by virtue of the Cleveland Guardians’ victory earlier in the night.
The Angels (72-89) did little at the plate to give Dana a chance. They didn’t score a run until the sixth inning, when Jo Adell’s double drove in Mike Trout. It was Adell’s 98th RBI of the season, with one game to go to try to reach 100.