ANAHEIM, Calif. _ He's barely 23 years old, a freshly minted major league starter.
But Griffin Canning, the Angels' most heralded pitching prospect in recent years, took the Angel Stadium mound for the second time since making his debut here almost three weeks ago and dazzled. Again.
Only this time, instead of allowing a home run to taint his outing like it had a couple of times before, Canning held his opponent scoreless Saturday. He struck out five and relinquished only three hits over seven innings in the Angels' 6-3 win over the Kansas City Royals.
Canning had never logged more than six innings in a professional setting. He came close once in the first 32 starts of his professional career, throwing a career-high six innings the last time he pitched at triple-A Salt Lake in April.
Canning tackled the challenge with ease. His mid-90s fastball retained velocity before beginning to plateau around 93 mph in his final two innings of work. He toted a perfect game into the fifth inning, striking out three as he relied on mostly weak contact to evade trouble.
In limiting the Royals to six baserunners, he used both his breaking balls to tie up hitters. He drew six swings-and-misses on his 89 mph slider and four on his low-80s curveball. In all, he saw batters whiff at 16 of his pitches.
Resounding blasts by Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani powered the Angels' offense. Trout hit the second-longest home run of his career, at least since MLB's Statcast system began tracking distances in 2015, when he launched a 473-foot solo shot into the far-right corner of the Angels' bullpen in the first inning. It was 250th career homer.
Ohtani sent Royals starter Jakob Junis' 77th pitch of the night into the right-field stands for a two-run homer in the sixth. It was his second home run since returning from the injured list May 7, and his first at home.
Catcher Jonathan Lucroy drove in the Angels' fifth run on a two-out, line-drive double to left field.
After Angels reliever Taylor Cole allowed three runs in 1/3 of an inning, rookie Ty Buttrey stopped the Royals' eighth-inning rally and collected a five-out save.
