Healthy Trout feasting on Rays pitching
Washington moves Angels slugger into No. 2 hole and he delivers another homer.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Mike Trout’s two-run homer highlighted a five-run outburst in the eighth inning of the Angels’ 7-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday night.
Trout gave the Angels a 2-1 lead with his seventh homer, a 111.1-mph, 420-foot shot down the left-field line off Phil Maton. Matt Thaiss extended the lead to 5-1 with a threerun double.
“We needed a big one at the right time and he came through, and it opened it up for everyone else,” Angels manager Ron Washington said.
It was Trout’s 17th tying or goahead homer in the eighth inning or later and gave him a 10-game stretch against Tampa Bay in which he hit .472 (17 for 36) with eight home runs and 15 RBIs.
Taylor Ward hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning off Kevin Kelly, extending the lead to 7-3. The 30-year-old outfielder’s sixth homer gave him 19 RBIs.
Reliever Luis Garcia worked an inning and earned the win.
Tampa Bay entered with the highest bullpen earned-run average in the majors at 6.23.
Harold Ramírez had three RBIs and pulled the Rays to within 5-3 on a two-run homer off Matt Moore in the eighth inning.
Washington tweaked his lineup — moving Trout from third to second and shifting Ward to third from fourth — “to get some offense.” Miguel Sanó batted fourth and had three hits.
“We finally sustained some stuff on the offensive side, as we’ve been searching for,” Washington said.
The Angels entered Monday 19th in the majors in batting average at .240, and 20th in runs with 67.
Tampa Bay’s Zach Eflin gave up six hits and struck out five over 61⁄3 scoreless innings. It appeared that Eflin got hit near the left wrist by Jo Adell’s 100.1-mph liner in the second inning, and Eflin had a liner by Brandon Drury go off his glove in the fifth.
“They got a couple hits in the first inning and then he kind of quieted them down,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “Really executed pitches.”
The Rays loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth but scored only one run on Ramírez’s one-out highhopper that starter Patrick Sandoval fielded behind the mound and got the out at first. Sandoval gave up one run and four hits over five innings.
Short hops
Reliever Robert Stephenson, who agreed to a $33-million, threeyear contract in January, will undergo tests for elbow soreness.
The 31-year-old right-hander started the season on the injured list because of right shoulder inflammation. First baseman Nolan Schanuel (testicular contusion) was back in the lineup. He left Saturday’s game in the bottom of the third inning after fouling off a pitch . ... Left-hander Reid Detmers (2-0) faces Rays right-hander Zack Littell (1-0) Wednesday.