ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The good news for the Angels was that Griffin Canning finally changed course.
The bad news is it happened on a day they didn’t hit.
The Angels lost 2-1 to the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday afternoon, missing a chance to win the four-game series and wasting Canning’s encouraging outing.
“That is a step in the right direction,” manager Ron Washington said. “And hopefully we’ll help him to build on that. That was a real good pitching duel out there today.”
Canning couldn’t quite match Rays starter Ryan Pepiot, who gave up one run in six innings.
“That kid that was out the for them was throwing the ball pretty good,” Washington said.
The one run was produced by Mike Trout, who led off the sixth with a walk. He stole second and — giving him five steals this season — and he scored on a sacrifice fly.
“That’s a part of his game,” Washington said. “It’s a part of his skillset. It doesn’t always have to be where you hit balls out of the ballpark.”
Besides the run that Trout produced with his legs, the Angels did little. They had runners at the corners with two outs in the second, but Nolan Schanuel hit a flyout. The next time they had multiple runners in one inning was the ninth. They didn’t get a runner in scoring position until there were two outs.
Pinch-hitter Brandon Drury grounded out to end it, leaving Canning with a hard-luck loss.
Canning, who brought a 9.88 ERA into the game, was much improved from his first three games, giving up just two runs in 5 1/3 innings despite a shaky start.
Canning allowed two runs within his first 17 pitches. He walked hitter Richie Palacios and then gave up a triple to Amed Rosario, who punched a line drive to right field on a 94 mph fastball off the outside corner. Rosario then scored on a sacrifice fly.
Canning said he was shaky in the first inning because he was “a little tentative,” and the fastball that Rosario hit was supposed to be inside.
After that, though, Canning did not allow anything else. He gave up just three more singles, including an infield hit. He struck out four and didn’t walk anyone after Palacios.
“Everything felt a lot better today,” Canning said. “There’s a couple of mechanical tweaks that I made just to help my timing out, help my rhythm.”
Washington said they would have liked to see Canning do better than 50% on first-pitch strikes, but he otherwise pleased with how he worked his way back into counts.
“Keeping them off balance, moving the ball up and down,” Washington said. “He made pitches in situations when he had to. That’s pitching. That’s what he did today.”
Canning also had more velocity on his fastball, after starting the season down about 2 mph from last year. He regularly hit 94 mph in the first four innings, although the numbers dipped as he got deeper into the game.
“I felt like I had more life on the ball,” Canning said. “It felt pretty good.”
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