Angels News: Phil Nevin Sounds Off on Griffin Canning's Return after 2 Years
We're going to take a moment and think back to what the MLB looked like back in 2021. The Atlanta Braves took home the World Series that year, our own Shohei Ohtani took home the AL MVP, and we were just one year removed from the Covid-shortened 2020 season.
It was also the last time we saw Griffin Canning take the pitching mound for the Halos. For almost the past two years, he has been sidelined with a lower back stress fracture that continued to give him issues. He finally started making progress around Spring Training and was looking to start the season healthy before suffering a groin strain in his last game before the regular season.
Even though old woes definitely crept up when this happened, Canning remained focused and when team manager Phil Nevin decided to bump Andrew Wantz down to the minor leagues, the stage was set for him to make his long-awaited return on Wednesday's 3-2 win over the Washington Nationals.
Canning was able to last five innings and struck out four batters while only allowing two runs. He looked very comfortable for not having suited up in such a long time and it was a special moment at Angels Stadium.
Nevin was beyond proud of his starting RHP and shared his first reaction to his performance in the postgame press conference.
"He was close to coming out of the game," said Nevin. "And then to go out in the fifth and just have that efficient, quick of an inning. I felt really good about taking him out there, just his first time back in two years. We were lined up in the bullpen and I'm really happy for him. Coming back from the fifth, you could see it on his face. I told him congrats and welcome back. It was a cool moment."
(Via Bally Sports West)
We look forward to seeing many more performances from Canning. It has been far too long since he played with us and we're going to appreciate every start we get from him.
