ANAHEIM — You can easily pick apart Caden Dana’s performance in the Angels’ 12-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Monday night to see where he is in his big league development.
At times Dana flashed flashed the kind of swing-and-miss stuff that gives the Angels reason to believe the 21-year-old will be part of the solution to their pitching problems.
At times he showed the lack of command that is why he still has plenty of work to do.
Dana gave up five runs in 4⅔ innings in his second start of the season, a disappointment after his encouraging outing last week. He gave up two runs in five innings against the Kansas City Royals.
Dana has a 6.32 ERA though four major league games this season, including two starts.
The positive was that he struck out nine. The Twins whiffed on 42% of their swings against him, which is an exceptionally high number. They missed on half of their swings at his slider and changeup.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t always putting those pitches where he wanted them. He walked five.
Dana also gave up two home runs – one on a hanging slider – to Royce Lewis.
Lewis grew up in Orange County as an Angels fan. He played at JSerra High in San Juan Capistrano, and was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 MLB Draft.
Although this is Lewis’ fourth season in the majors, it was the first time he’d ever played a game at Angel Stadium as a major leaguer. He’d missed the Twins’ other trips because of injuries.
Lewis hit a two-run homer in the second inning, and another two-run homer in the fifth, snapping a 3-3 tie.
The Twins scored two more against Robert Stephenson in the sixth, one on a James Outman homer and another on a two-out error from third baseman Yoán Moncada.
It was the second of four errors for the Angels (67-77) on a sloppy night. Right fielder Matthew Lugo also misplayed a fly ball into a double.
They came into the night short-handed because Jo Adell – their hottest hitter – was a late scratch with vertigo. Catcher Logan O’Hoppe is out with a concussion, and first baseman Nolan Schanuel remains out with a wrist injury.
The best of the remaining players – Zach Neto, Taylor Ward and Mike Trout – have all been in slumps for the past couple of weeks.
The Angels’ first two runs were produced by catcher Sebastian Rivero, who came up to replace O’Hoppe. Rivero hadn’t been in the big leagues since 2022. His two-run double in his first at-bat tied the score in the second inning. Trout followed with an RBI single to briefly put the Angels ahead.
Trout had an opportunity to help the Angels build a rally in the fifth, after Bryce Teodosio’s leadoff triple. He popped out. Yoán Moncada hit a bouncer back to the pitcher. Neto hit a flyout.
Neto did collect his 25th stolen base of the season, after a first-inning hit. Neto, who also has 25 homers, became the sixth player in Angels history to have a 25/25 season. Shohei Ohtani last did it in 2021. Trout has done it three times, most recently in 2016.
More to come on this story.