Advertisement

Mark Trumbo’s record night powers Angels past Blue Jays

Share

Get Adobe Flash player

Mark Trumbo didn’t just get a hit all five times he stepped to the plate Tuesday night. He circled the bases every time, too.

Trumbo matched a team record with four extra-base hits, including back-to-back home runs with Josh Hamilton, and Chris Iannetta and Erick Aybar also went deep as the Angels beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 12-6.

Trumbo had a career-best five hits and became the first player in Angels history to collect five hits and score five runs in the same game.

Advertisement

BOX SCORE: Angels 12, Blue Jays 6

“Easily the best game I’ve had all year, maybe even career-wise in the big leagues,” he said.

Trumbo finished 5 for 5 with three doubles and two RBIs as the Angels won for the eighth time in 11 meetings with the Blue Jays. It’s the 10th time in Angels history a player has had four extra-base hits in a game.

“It’s a special day for him,” starter Jerome Williams said. “I’m happy to be a part of it.”

Trumbo doubled and scored in the first, third and sixth innings and singled and scored in the eighth. He led off the fifth with his 33rd homer and Hamilton followed with his 20th, the third time this season the Angels have gone back-to-back.

“It was unbelievable, man,” said Hamilton, who saw all five of Trumbo’s hits from the on-deck circle. “Every time he went up there, you expected something good to happen.”

Advertisement

Hamilton went 3 for 5 with four RBIs and scored twice, inspiring some praise from Trumbo.

“It’s really nice to see,” Trumbo said of Hamilton’s big night. “He’s had his struggles this year but the guy you’re seeing now is the guy we’ve played against for quite some time.”

Williams pitched five-plus innings to win consecutive starts for the first time since May 21 and 26. Williams (7-10) allowed six runs and nine hits, walked one and struck out one.

Angels manager Mike Scioscia said Williams was “erratic.”

“He just didn’t look like he was able to get his sinker where he wanted to and struggled through five innings,” Scioscia said.

Michael Kohn and Buddy Boshers pitched one inning each and Ryan Brasier worked the final two.

Anthony Gose hit his first career grand slam for the Blue Jays and Rajai Davis added a solo shot, but it was a rough night for starter Mark Buehrle, who failed to extend his streak of six straight winning decisions.

Buehrle (11-8), who has not beaten the Angels since 2008, matched a season-worst by allowing eight runs in four-plus innings, his shortest start of 2013. The left-hander allowed a season-high 12 hits, walked one and struck out two in his first loss since July 20 against Tampa Bay.

Advertisement

“One of those nights,” a frustrated Buehrle said. “The whole game I wasn’t making pitches. Everything was up, I was falling behind in the count.”

The Angels jumped on Buehrle with a four-run, bat-around first. Aybar hit a one-out solo homer, his sixth, Mike Trout walked and Trumbo doubled him to third before both runners scored on Hamilton’s single. Two batters later, Grant Green hit an RBI single, scoring Hamilton.

The Blue Jays tied it in the second. Adam Lind, J.P. Arencibia and Moises Sierra all singled before Gose drilled a first-pitch grand slam, his first homer of the season.

The Angels reclaimed the lead in the third on Hamilton’s RBI single, then pulled away with a three-run fifth, highlighted by the homers by Trumbo and Hamilton.

“Both [Trumbo] and Josh had terrific games in the middle of our order,” Scioscia said.

The Angels tacked on three more against Chad Jenkins in the sixth. Trout extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a leadoff single and scored on Trumbo’s double before Iannetta homered, his ninth.

Davis homered and Kevin Pillar hit an RBI grounder in the bottom of the sixth, but Trumbo singled and scored on a two-out base hit by Kole Calhoun in the eighth.

Advertisement

Trout’s homecoming

The interleague portion of the Angels’ 2014 schedule will have special significance for Trout, who grew up rooting for Philadelphia’s professional sports teams.

The Angels will play May 13-14 in Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park, which is 45 miles north of Trout’s hometown of Millville, N.J. On April 21-23, the Angels will be in Washington, D.C., where Trout will oppose the Nationals and his friend Bryce Harper for the first time.

Trout, the 2012 American League rookie of the year and most valuable player runner-up, was called up to the Angels for good on April 28, 2012, one day before Harper, now 20, made his debut with the Nationals. The players developed a friendship in October and November of 2011, when they were Arizona Fall League teammates on the Scottsdale Scorpions.

The Angels open the 2014 season at home against Seattle on March 31 and close on the road against the Mariners on Sept. 28. The bulk of their interleague schedule will be against National League East teams.

In addition to four games against the Dodgers, which will be much later (Aug. 4-7) than usual, and the series in Philadelphia and Washington, the Angels will travel to Atlanta (June 13-15) and play host to the New York Mets (April 11-13), Miami (Aug. 25-26) and the Phillies (Aug. 12-13).

Advertisement

Short hops

Peter Bourjos underwent surgery on Tuesday to have a pin inserted in his right wrist to promote the healing of a fractured bone. The center fielder is not expected to resume any kind of baseball activities for two months. … Second baseman Howie Kendrick, out since Aug. 6 because of a strained left knee, was activated off the disabled list Tuesday, but with the Angels playing three games on artificial turf in Toronto, he is not expected to start until Friday in Houston.

Times staff writer Mike DiGiovanna contributed to this report.

Advertisement