Mike Trout hits 395th homer as Angels beat Diamondbacks
ANAHEIM — Mike Trout was on hand for three of former Angels teammate Albert Pujols’ major milestones, smothering the Hall-of-Fame bound slugger with affection after Pujols hit his 500th career home run at Washington in 2014, his 600th homer in Anaheim in 2017 and his 3,000th hit in Seattle in 2018.
Soon, it will be Trout on the receiving end of those congratulatory hugs and handshakes that Pujols basked in.
The three-time American League most valuable player hit the 395th homer of his career – a two-run shot to right field in the fifth inning–and added a two-run single in the ninth to lead the Angels to a 10-5 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks in Angel Stadium Saturday night.
With five more long balls, Trout will become only the 59th player in major league history to hit 400 home runs. Trout is also six RBIs shy of 1,000 for his career.
“Just to think about it, how fast it’s gone, I’m trying to enjoy every minute of it,” said Trout, a 15-year veteran who turns 34 on Aug. 7. “Yeah, it’s a lot of homers, but I’ve still got a lot left in me.”
Trout provided the muscle in a 15-hit attack in which all nine starters got a hit. Nolan Schanuel had three hits – giving the first baseman 10 hits in a four-game span – Zach Neto, Travis d’Arnaud and Luis Rengifo each had two hits, and the Angels went six for 12 with runners in scoring position.
Neto singled and scored in the first, and the Angels turned a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 lead with three runs off Arizona starter Zac Gallen in the fourth, a rally that featured back-to-back doubles by Taylor Ward and Jo Adell, Jorge Soler’s sacrifice fly, d’Arnaud’s double and Rengifo’s RBI single.
“It’s big,” Trout said of the team’s ability to hit in the clutch. “Everyone’s pulling on the same rope. We harp on that. Have good at-bats, and good things happen.”
Arizona had trimmed a 6-3 deficit to 6-5 with a two-run eighth-inning rally that was aided by Angels reliever Jose Fermin’s two walks and a base-loaded walk by right-hander Sam Bachman, who stopped the bleeding by getting Geraldo Perdomo to ground out to first with the bases loaded to end the inning.
The Angels then rallied for four runs in the bottom of the eighth, Yoán Moncada and d’Arnaud setting the table with singles, Neto and Schanuel hitting RBI singles and Trout capping the rally with a two-run single to right for a 10-5 lead.
Trout’s homer, a 373-foot fly ball off the top of the tall right-field wall, pushed the Angels’ lead from 4-2 to 6-2 in the fifth and moved Trout to within five of a milestone homer.
“We have enough negativity in the game – any time you see those types of things, you want to celebrate it, right?” Angels interim manager Ray Montgomery said. “I think it’s a testimony to who he is, too, because he’s so humble about everything. And like he said, those numbers are big.”
Angels left-hander Yusei Kikuchi, the team’s ace and lone All-Star representative, gave up three runs and six hits, including a pair of solo homers to Eugenio Suárez, in 5⅔ innings, striking out five and walking one, to improve to 4-6 with a 3.11 ERA, and he escaped a serious injury scare in the sixth.
With a runner aboard and two outs, Josh Naylor smashed a 105-mph line drive off Kikuchi’s left shoulder, the ball caroming into center field for a single. Kikuchi fell to the ground, clutching his shoulder, but he got up, threw a few warm-up pitches and remained in the game – for one more batter.
Randal Grichuk lined an RBI single to center to pull Arizona to within 6-3, Naylor taking third and Grichuk second on the throw. Kikuchi was pulled in favor of right-hander Ryan Zeferjahn, who got James McCann to ground out to third, ending the inning.
Montgomery said the line drive “hit more flesh, nothing bony,” and Kikuchi, who won’t pitch in Tuesday’s All-Star Game in Atlanta after removing himself from the active roster, said he is fine.
“There’s a little bit of pain,” Kikuchi said through an interpreter, “but I don’t think it’s that big of an issue.”