Canha appreciates ‘special moment’ after the heroics in the Giants’ victory originally appeared in NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – Arriving home close to midnight after a game that featured a rain delay and extra innings to end a weeklong cross-country trip, Mark Canha felt the hairs on his arms stand up looking around at a place he grew up frequenting as a fan, wearing the same hat and orange and black shirt that he can now call work attire. All the lights were off at Oracle Park, bringing a new sense of serenity followed by sentimental chills for the Bay Area native.
“It means a lot to me, it’s a special place,” Canha said Friday night at his locker with a smile that couldn’t be wider. “It’s a special stadium. (…) I have this stadium very near and dear to my heart.
“It’s incredible. I’m proud to be part of it all.”
Canha, in his first home game as a giant, absorbed everything. Flashbacks of Barry Bonds sending balls into orbit and falling into McCovey Cove flashed through his mind as he walked around the dugout and stepped onto the plate. Hours later, Canha played the role of hero on a night when the Giants couldn’t get a hit through the first six innings, throwing a deep sacrifice fly to the left field warning track that landed just feet short of a big hit for a 3-2 comeback victory against the Detroit Tigers.
If it weren’t for the Tigers, this new lifelong memory wouldn’t have even come to fruition for Canha. It was just 10 days ago that the Giants acquired Canha of the Tigers. Animosity wasn’t even a thought.
Gratitude and joy overcame any other emotion he might have been feeling.
“It was incredible,” said Canha. “It was a very special moment for me, simply incredible. An incredible feeling.”
San Francisco manager Bob Melvin was choosing between Canha and Jerar Encarnacion to be the team’s DH against a Tigers team that was using a four-pitcher bullpen game. Encarnacion has hit .280 with a 53 percent hitting rate in seven games since he was called up, but Canha has been on fire since joining your hometown team. He was batting .467 (7-for-15) in four games as a Giant and went 4-for-6 with a double and two RBI on Thursday in their win over the Washington Nationals.
Melvin also has history with Canha and understands what it would mean for him to play in this stadium for the first time for the Giants. The San Francisco captain also coached Canha’s Oakland A’s in his first seven years in the big leagues. The player-coach relationship went a long way toward making Canha a giant, and Melvin never had any doubts when Canha’s back was against the wall with the bases loaded.
“He goes out there probably looking for certain pitches, and then two strikes in, he just goes into battle mode,” Melvin said.
Canha quickly ran into trouble facing Tigers reliever Shelby Miller, putting himself in an immediate 0-2 hole. He then fouled an outside fastball and spat on two sliders on the ground. Miller made the final mistake by throwing a 2-2 fastball into Canha’s wheelhouse and made him pay for it.
His mentality was to attack and make contact. The result eclipsed anything Canha could have imagined.
This is home. Canha starred in high school at San Jose’s Bellarmine College Preparatory, the same school that Giants hitting coach Pat Burrell attended. He then excelled at Cal before being drafted by the Miami Marlins in 2010.
Melvin is his manager again, Matt Chapman is manning the hot third base corner as his teammate again and Canha’s family was in the stands Friday night to watch what he dreamed of in his backyard, celebrating on the same field that he idolized as a child.
Incredible. Incredible. Special. No truer words could have been spoken by Canha during a balance of 35 years in the making.
