ANAHEIM — Mike Trout was on hand for three of former Angels teammate Albert Pujols’ major milestones: the Hall-of-Fame bound slugger’s 500th 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 received.
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 eighth 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.
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 finally 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 Travis d’Arnaud setting the table with singles, Zach Neto and Nolan Schanuel hitting RBI singles and Trout capping the rally with a two-run single to right for a 10-5 lead.
Angels left-hander Yusei Kikuchi, the team’s ace and lone All-Star representative, gave up three runs and six hits in 5⅔ innings, striking out five and walking one, to improve to 4-6 with a 3.11 ERA, and he appeared to survive 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 or biceps, 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.
The Diamondbacks took a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth when Eugenio Suárez lined his second homer of the game – and 31st of the season – over the right-field wall for the 20th career multi-homer game.
The Angels mistakenly set off fireworks for the visiting player, an error that was met with a cascade of boos as Suárez rounded the bases.
But those boos quickly turned into cheers in the bottom of the fourth when the Angels rallied for three runs to take a 4-2 lead.
Ward led off with a double to left and scored on Jo Adell’s RBI double off the right-center field wall for a 2-2 tie. Adell took third on Moncada’s grounder to first and scored on Jorge Soler’s sacrifice fly to right for a 3-2 lead.
d’Arnaud doubled into the left-field corner and scored on Luis Rengifo’s RBI single to center for a 4-2 lead.
The Angels loaded the bases with no outs off Arizona starter Zac Gallen in the first, Neto lining a single to left, Schanuel drawing a walk and Trout capping a 10-pitch at-bat in which he fouled off four two-strike pitches with a walk. But they managed only one run on Ward’s fielder’s-choice grounder for a 1-0 lead.
The Diamondbacks tied the score in the second when Suárez jumped all over Kikuchi’s center-cut, full-count slider, sending a towering 434-foot drive over the center-field wall for his 30th homer of the season, matching his home run total for 2024.