KANSAS CITY, Mo. — No one expected Mike Trout’s puzzling to slump to last as long as it has, and now perhaps it’s finally over.
A day after Trout said he’s finally starting to feel like himself, he doubled and homered in the Angels’ 5-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Sunday afternoon.
Trout’s homer came on the pitch after Shohei Ohtani continued his sizzling month with a two-run homer to put the Angels ahead in the fifth inning. Ohtani’s major-league-leading 24th homer gave him seven homers on his seven-game trip.
Ohtani has hits in 15 straight games, the second longest streak of his career, with an extra-base hit in the last seven.
The Angels won for the 11th time in their last 14 games, bringing a 41-33 record into an off day and then a two-game series against the Dodgers at Angel Stadium.
The surprising thing about the Angels’ hot streak over the past few weeks is that they’ve managed it with barely any contribution from Trout.
Trout came into the game hitting .252 with an .820 OPS, well below his career averages of .300 and .993. Over the previous 42 games, he’d hit .207 with a .687 OPS, with no homers since June 7.
More recently, though, there were encouraging signs.
On Saturday, Trout singled, doubled and walked, with the single coming on a 99 mph pitch from Royals closer Aroldis Chapman. Afterward, he said he was finally feeling right at the plate again.
Sunday, Trout drew a walk from veteran Zack Greinke in the first inning. In the fourth, he yanked a double into left field.
And in the fifth, just after Ohtani had homered to put the Angels up 3-2, Trout pulled his 15th homer of the season over the left field fence.
In the ninth, another struggling Angels hitter, Jared Walsh, hit a homer to give the Angels an insurance run. Walsh, who missed the first quarter of the season after dealing with neurological issues, had been hitting .111.
It was enough for a victory for Angels starter Tyler Anderson, who gave up two runs in five innings.
Although the left-hander has a 5.64 ERA, he has managed to get through at least five innings with the Angels in the game or ahead regularly. The Angels are 9-4 in his 13 starts.
This time they were able to turn the game over to Jaime Barría in the sixth inning. Barria is the Angels No. 6 starter, but they have two off days this week, so they are able to use him out of the bullpen for now.
The Angels needed a fresh arm in the bullpen after the relievers were worked heavily earlier this week in Texas, which may have contributed to their meltdown on Saturday in Kansas City.
Barria worked three scoreless innings, and then closer Carlos Estévez pitched the ninth to pick up his 19th save in 19 tries. Estévez equaled the Angels record by converting his first 19 save opportunities of the season.
©2023 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit ocregister.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
