Jonathan Cannon had a disastrous spring training, which is evident in his bloated 10.32 ERA.
But numbers in spring training can be misleading as pitchers sometimes use the games to work and fine-tune their arsenal. For Cannon, he used spring training to work on the shapes of his off-speed pitches and his changeup.
Though he didn’t receive the desired results, the work paid off as Cannon pitched five scoreless innings in the Sox’ 1-0 loss to the Angels. Cannon struck out five but allowed three walks.
“[Cannon] used a sinker well at the bottom of the zone, got ground balls when he needed to,” manager Will Venable said. “The four-seamer was working up in the zone and a good changeup, too. He did a great job mixing it up, and really nice performance from Jonathan.”
Sox starters haven’t allowed a run in the first two games and the defense has been stout.
Third baseman Miguel Vargas turned a double play on an impressive groundball stop in the seventh inning with runners on first and second to end the inning unscathed. The defense turned three double plays.
“Certainly defensively is the first thing that comes to mind,” Venable said of what stood out over the first two games. “These guys have been working tremendously hard. Really pleased with the work they put in and showed up on the field. And then [the] pitching has been outstanding.”
Cannon’s outing got off to a shaky start with an 11-pitch at-bat against left fielder Taylor Ward. It was a 34-pitch first inning for Cannon, which likely played a role in his early exit. But Cannon quickly rebounded by striking out first baseman Nolan Schanuel, forcing star outfielder Mike Trout into a groundout and capping it by striking out third baseman Yoan Moncada.
Cannon was proud of his execution in big spots.
“Really executing big pitches when I had to,” Cannon said. “A lot of that was [catcher Matt Thaiss] behind the plate making really good pitch calls and reading the swings a little bit, keeping me focused, coming out and talking to me, settling me down when he had to. We had good chemistry behind the plate today.”
But the Sox offense was dormant against starter Jose Soriano, who threw seven shutout innings, allowing two hits and two walks while striking out five. Soriano also threw just 73 pitches. The Sox couldn’t get anything against his sinker and struck out seven times.
“He was doing what he does,” said Thaiss, who played six years with the Angels. “He fills up the zone. He has a really good high-velocity sinker and a curveball. He kept us off-balance all day.”
The lone run the Sox gave up came in the eighth inning. Reliever Mike Clevinger got back-to-back outs off Trout and Schanuel before walking designated hitter Jorge Soler. After a wild pitch by Clevinger and a subsequent errant throw by Thaiss put Soler on third, Moncada’s single drove in the deciding run.
Granted it’s against the Angels, who scored the third-lowest runs in baseball last season (635), but the pitching staff has been a bright spot for the Sox over the first two games. The bullpen will be a talking point all season. But the team is encouraged by the pitching and defense to start the season.
“Coming in today, it was crappy luck the way they scored the run, but once again, we keep pitching like that and playing defense … we’ll hit; it’s not a problem,” Cannon said. “We’re gonna win games if we keep playing like this.”