It’s not easy to bounce back from a two-start stretch where your ERA is north of nine, but tossing six dominant, shutout innings against arguably the best team in baseball? That’s one way to turn the page.

While most Mets fans were fast asleep back on the East Coast, Griffin Canning was wide awake and dealing. The right-hander blanked the Dodgers on Wednesday night, muscling through six innings of three-hit ball while striking out seven.

The stellar outing shaved his season ERA down to a crisp 2.90, and perhaps more importantly, served as a reminder of just how effective Canning has been this year.

His biggest challenge came in the fifth inning. After allowing a one-out single to Dalton Rushing, he had to face the top of the order with Shohei Ohtani looming in the hole. It wasn’t a problem for Canning. The Southern California native bore down, striking out Enrique Hernández and then freezing Ohtani with a perfectly placed pitch to retire the side.

It was a moment that defined his night, and possibly his season so far.

The difference this year? Canning has made subtle, but effective, tweaks to his approach. 

“He’s open to new ideas and he adjusts,” Carlos Mendoza said in his postgame interview. “It comes down to him going out there and executing and trusting the plan.”

He’s leaning on his slider slightly more often as his putaway pitch, and the numbers back up the decision. His strikeout rate is up, and perhaps even more telling is the spike in his ground ball percentage. In 2024, that number sat at 41.3%. This season, it’s jumped to 53.2%.

The tweaks are working. Wednesday night’s win already matches Canning’s total from all of last season, pushing him to 6-2 on the year.

For a pitcher who ended May with a clunker, this was the turnaround Canning needed.