UCLA's Griffin Canning Seeking Turnaround Vs Phillies

Former UCLA ace and current New York Mets starter Griffin Canning has had a rough June.

In three appearances that includes a dominant six shutout innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Canning has a 5.74 ERA in 15.4 innings pitched. This is his worst stretch of the season and he's looking to turn it aorund against the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday.

Canning enters the weekend matchup with a 3.80 ERA and 6-3 record over 14 starts and 68.2 innings pitched.

In his last start Sunday against the Tampa Bay Rays, Canning took the mound with the hopes of shaking off what was previously his worst start of the season a few days earlier. Instead, the six-year veteran allowed six earned runs, four hits and five walks over 4.1 innings, leading to his third loss of the season.

The former bruin has the fourth-highest ERA of the Mets' rotation, just ahead of Tyler Megil (3.95) and behind Clay Holmes (3.04), David Peterson (2.60) and Kodai Senga (1.47).

Canning spent two season with UCLA. In 2017, he was a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist, D1Baseball, Collegiate Baseball and Perfect Game/Rawlings All-American second team selection, All-Pac-12 team selection, named to Pac-12 All-Defensive Team and the team leader in innings pitched, strikeouts and ERA, just to name a few of his accomplishments.

The then-junior started 17 games and boasted a 2.34 ERA and 7-4 record over 119.0 innings pitched. Canning was drafted by the Angels with the 47th overall pick in the second round of the 2017 MLB Draft. He finished his career with the Bruins sixth all-time in strikeouts with 301 after two seasons.

Though an All-Star nod is as far-fetched as it has been all season, Canning is having a revival year after spending the last five seasons with the Angels and struggling to boast an ERA lower than a 3.99. The hopes for the 29-year-old is that he will buck this trend sooner rather than later.

Canning takes the mound in Philadelphia on Saturday against Mick Abel at 4:15 p.m. PT televised nationally on FOX. If Canning can return to his pre-June form, he will further bolster an otherwise consistently dominant Mets rotation.