The Los Angeles Angels finally got to witness the MLB debut of No. 1 prospect and MLB Pipeline’s No. 73 overall prospect, Caden Dana. The Angels drafted Dana out of high school when he was 18 years old, and have watched him rise exponentially through the minor league system for the last two years.
With the Angels out of any sort of contending picture for the final month of the season, they felt it was time to give Dana, 20, a shot in the big leagues. And it didn’t take even one full start for fans to see why Dana has become such a highly-touted prospect over the last two years.
Dana needed 12 pitches to get through a 1-2-3 first frame, including a strikeout of Cal Raleigh. Dana pitched six innings in total, allowing two earned runs on two hits and four walks with four punch-outs. The Angels bullpen held a 3-2 lead firm after his exit, allowing Dana to secure the win in his debut and make some history.
The 20-year-old starter became the youngest player in Angels franchise history to win his debut. He was already the youngest pitcher to start a game for the Angels since Frank Tanana in 1973. For Dana, the nerves dissipated quickly in his debut outing, according to Adrian Garro of MLB.com:
“Honestly, I was really nervous,” Dana said, “but I knew after that first pitch that all of my nerves kind of released.”
Matt Thaiss caught Dana’s historic MLB debut, and was impressed with the way that Dana operated given the time he had to learn his opponent and where he was less than a week ago.
“For his first big league start, the amount of information he had on their lineup, the homework he did leading up to this start was really, really impressive,” said catcher Matt Thaiss.
This is the type of work that the Angels are hoping to see regularly from Dana. He is expected to be a potential anchor of the rotation for the foreseeable future, and that begins with a winning effort in his debut.
Mickey Moniak plays hero for Angels on Saturday
The Angels got back-to-back wins against the Seattle Mariners over the weekend that could inspire a lot of faith in the team’s future. It was Dana’s mound work on Sunday, but it was the bats of Mickey Moniak and Jo Adell that brought the faith on Saturday.
Adell and Moniak both hit two home runs, with Moniak tying the game in the seventh inning and hitting a walk-off in the ninth.
