Mike Trout and Albert Pujols homer, then Angels hold on for 10-7 win over Orioles
The latest in the growing collection of Mike Trout Superhero Facts: Trout is so good he can evade radar detection.
His home runs can, anyway.
He did not really drive a ball 524 feet on Wednesday. But he is Mike Trout, so you would be forgiven for believing it.
“It’s about as loud and far as I’ve seen a ball hit,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said.
Trout’s home run was the most memorable in the Angels’ 10-7 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday.
It was not the most historic. Albert Pujols hit a home run — and a double — moving him within two hits of 3,000.
As the Angels play the final game of their homestand Thursday, Pujols could join Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Alex Rodriguez as the only players in major league history with 600 home runs and 3,000 hits. If Pujols does not get two hits Thursday, he could get to 3,000 this weekend in Seattle, with another member of the 3,000 club — the Mariners’ Ichiro Suzuki — on hand to welcome him.
Justin Upton also hit a home run, and he drove in four runs as well. Angels starter Andrew Heaney (1-1) held Baltimore to one run over six innings, earning his first victory of the season.
The Angels enjoyed their most lopsided victory in three weeks — even after the Orioles scored five times in the ninth inning — piling on against the team with the worst record in the American League.
That was particularly true for catcher Martin Maldonado, who entered the series in an 0-for-34 skid but delivered his second consecutive three-hit game against the Orioles.
On Wednesday, he hit his first home run this season.
Maldonado’s batting average: .156 on Monday, .222 today. Put another way: Maldonado’s batting average by month is .125 for April, .750 for May.
The Angels might have gone 0 for the Boston Red Sox and 0 for the New York Yankees. Nonetheless, the Angels are one game out of first place in the AL West.
Trout and Pujols each homered in the first inning, putting the Angels ahead for good.
Trout has 11 homers for the season, tied for the major league lead. He joined Brian Downing and Jim Edmonds as the only players in franchise history to hit 11 home runs in the first 30 games of the season.
But, really, the only number that mattered was 524.
Trout’s ball went back, back, back into the left-field stands, deep beyond the bullpens. The league’s Statcast system spit out this estimated distance: 524 feet.
To use one of Trout’s favorite expressions: Yeah, no.
Heaney said he would have bought an estimated distance close to 500 feet.
“524 seems generous,” Heaney said with a slight grin. “He’s a strong dude. He got all of it.”
Turns out the Statcast radar failed to track the entire flight of the ball. That can happen. In this case, the estimation of the distance beyond radar tracking was, as Bob Uecker might have said, just a little bit outside the believable range.
Trout said he could not recall hitting a ball as hard as this one. He thought his 2014 home run in Kansas City — estimated at 445 feet by the Royals and 489 feet by ESPN — did not travel as far as this one.
“I’m going to officially call it 487,” shortstop Andrelton Simmons said, “so we don’t blow his head too much.”
Never fear data, though, because Statcast nailed this: The ball left Trout’s bat at 117 mph. In the four years the system has been in use, never has any Angel hit a ball that hard.
He hit it so hard that radar could not pick it up. Trout is basically a stealth car, driving 117 on the freeway and invisible to the California Highway Patrol. That, ladies and gentlemen and speeders of all ages, is one heck of a superpower.
Follow Bill Shaikin on Twitter @BillShaikin
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