Trout, Cron lead a power surge
They each hit a home run and Angels have a season-high four in win over the Mets.
NEW YORK — As Mike Trout dipped his right foot across home plate in the second inning of the Angels’ 12-5 win over the New York Mets on Sunday, Mets manager Terry Collins rubbed his hand over his mouth, shuffled his feet and hunched over a railing in the dugout.
Whatever levers Collins pulled made no difference on Sunday to Trout. The man abided no strategy. The Mets tried walking him twice. He either scored or stole a base. They tried nibbling around the plate. He crushed a home run and a double high off the wall.
First baseman Albert Pujols missed a third game in a row because of hamstring tightness, and without his muscle to provide cover, the Mets could pitch to Trout the way a zookeeper might feed a lion: with great caution.
In the first two games, the Angels’ lineup didn’t have the bite to make the Mets pay. Trout walked five times this series. After Saturday’s game, Collins admitted he came close to walking Trout in the ninth inning of that contest … with the bases loaded … with no outs ... up three runs.
Angels manager Mike Scioscia chewed on that thought the next morning. He did not sound shocked.
“I’m sure he weighed the fact that there’s nobody out makes it a little bit different,” Scioscia said. “But I’m sure Terry thought about it.”
The meekness of Mets starter Tommy Milone, whose earned-run average climbed to 7.91 in three starts, finally gave Trout some help.
The Angels pounced on
Milone for five runs before he recorded an out. C.J. Cron provided the ignition. After Milone intentionally walked Trout to load the bases, then walked Jefry Marte for the Angels’ first run, Cron blasted a grand slam.
Angels starter Jesse Chavez wasn’t sharp. The Mets tagged him for three home runs in 52⁄3 innings, and he gave up five runs. But he had a cushion: He stood in the batter’s box as a hitter in the first inning before ever taking the mound.
“That’s always a good sign,” Chavez said.
Pujols worked out again before the game but did not play. His strikeouts are up this season and his slugging is down, but his absence this series laid bare just how much he is needed in the Angels’ lineup.
Trout has now played in six games this season when Pujols sat. He has walked in 32% of his plate appearances, about twice his regular clip. That’s consistent with his career trend. When Pujols sits, Trout’s walk rate doubles.
Walks are certainly better than an out.
“I don’t get frustrated,” Trout said. “A walk’s getting on first, and pass it to the guy behind me.”
But the Angels would prefer that Trout get more opportunities to swing. Success usually follows. Trout is batting .350 (tied for the American League lead) with 14 home runs (one off the lead). Meaning they could use more protection for Trout.
“If you’re going to be good, you have to be able to absorb a player that’s maybe not swinging to his potential or is banged up and out of the lineup,” Scioscia said. “Our issue’s been when you have a guy that’s banged up along with maybe four, five guys that aren’t in their game, it creates issues.”
Chief among those players were Cron and Marte. Cron hadn’t hit a home run this season before Sunday, his longest drought to start a season. He is batting .232. Marte is hitting only .185.
“It hasn’t been the best stretch early on for some of us,” Cron said.
But, he added, “We know we can hit.”
The pair combined for six RBIs on Sunday. In the second inning, Marte followed Trout’s home run with one of his own. And Andrelton Simmons hit a three-run home run in the seventh, the first time all season the Angels have hit four home runs in a game.
Trout also wreaked havoc all on his own. His thirdinning double traveled 407 feet, crashing about a foot below the top of the wall in straightaway center field. His home run was his eighth in a row to travel 400 feet or more.
“I’m just looking for specific location and hope you get it,” Trout said. “I’m in that situation the whole game. You don’t want to expand. Once you expand, you get out of your game.”
The pitch that yielded the double caught the fat part of the plate. The homerun pitch was just outside the zone.
For Trout, close enough.