Two days after an illness meant he would miss his normal day in the rotation and sent the Mets’ front office scrambling through a series of roster moves, Griffin Canning made St. Louis Cardinals batters sick for six innings in New York’s 4-1 win Thursday night at Citi Field.
“I feel like tonight is kind of the blueprint,” Canning said after allowing one run on three hits over six innings while striking out eight. “Tonight is how I want to pitch.”
Canning finished his outing retiring nine-straight Cardinals, including five going down swinging.
“I thought the slider was good again today, the way he uses both slider-changeup, but the fastball at the top of the zone to finish off hitters,” manager Carlos Mendoza said, adding it was “hundred percent” the best he’s seen Canning’s four-seamer.
“He executed well,” the skipper said of the heater. “It was high enough to get by the hitters. Good carry, good velo, and used it effectively.”
Canning threw his fastball 45 times out of 102 pitches, and got seven whiffs and eight called strikes. The right-hander said he noticed the Cardinals’ lefties were “a hundred percent selling out for the changeup” early in the game and adjusted to get on the same page with Luis Torrens behind the plate.
“Just kinda felt like they were sitting off-speed,” he said. “Felt like the fastball had pretty good life, rolling what was working and on the same page as Luis back there.”
Mendoza remembered Canning really liked his fastball and the plan against him was to “take away his fastball, knowing that the secondary pitches were really, really good.”
The biggest difference this season? “The biggest adjustment is how he’s using his arsenal,” the manager said. “He’s getting ahead with a lot of different pitches, whether it’s the slider, the changeup. Using the fastball effectively. On hitters’ counts, he’s not just throwing four-seam fastballs there. He’s using all of his pitches.
“… and when he’s ahead, he’s sneaking fastballs by hitters. I think it’s an adjustment, and I think he’s got the ability to read the situation and read the lineups and hitters are trying to do to him.”
Of course, the slider was quite good as he got six whiffs, five called strikes, and 6 foul balls from his 27 offerings.
Canning, while leaning heavily on his big three pitches, noted he threw a few cutters to left-handed batters late in the game and five curveballs, after only throwing two in previous outings.
“The hitters are good, they’re gonna go into a game watching video and having an approach against me,” he said. “Being able to throw something in that’s a little different speed, little different look kinda helps me in the long run.”
The long run was something the Mets were hoping to get from Canning in Thursday’s start, with the bullpen thin after Huascar Brazobán was used as an opener and Justin Hagenman was called up for his MLB debut in Wednesday’s extra-inning loss at Minnesota.
“We needed at least five from him,” Mendoza said, adding that while they “felt good about him taking the ball,” they would be watching him closely because “he was weak a couple of days ago.”
Canning spared everyone the details of the illness, just saying with a broad smile, “I just didn’t feel very good.” And after a pair of walks in the fourth and a run in the third, he settled into things, retiring six straight batters to get him to 84 pitches through those five innings.
“Watching him go out there and continue to execute pitches, hold the velo. He wasn’t missing his spots. Good outing by him,” Mendoza said.
Mendoza had Reed Garrett ready in the sixth if Canning got into any trouble, but after a nine-pitch strikeout started the frame, a pair of groundouts got him to a quality start and bridged the gap to the back-end of the Mets bullpen, who slammed the door shut.
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