Angels turn on power in 13-0 victory over Tigers

DETROIT -- Police confirmed to a local television station late Tuesday night that a bomb threat was made against Comerica Park about an hour into a game between the Angels and Detroit Tigers.

There was an explosion all right, but it was provided by the Angels offense, which enjoyed its most prolific game of the season in a 13-0 shellacking of the Tigers, busting out for a season-high 18 hits and five home runs, including tape-measure blasts by Mike Trout and Mark Trumbo.

Albert Pujols, Alberto Callaspo and Kendrys Morales also hit home runs and the Angels’ bats matched the sizzle of the weather -- 100 degrees with 33% humidity at game time. Every starter except Erick Aybar had a hit in the team’s largest shutout victory since a 13-0 win in Dodger Stadium on June 25, 2004.

“You don’t want to be the guy that breaks the chain, I guess,” Trumbo said about the contagious nature of hitting. “When everybody in front of you is getting it done, you go up there with the mindset that you can too.”

As has often been the case over the last 21/2 months, Trout, the exceptional 20-year-old rookie, and Trumbo, the 26-year-old slugger, led the way.

Trout became the first Angels rookie with four four-hit games, raising his American League-leading average to .355, 22 points ahead of Minnesota catcher Joe Mauer, who ranks second with a .333 mark.

Trout’s ninth-inning single gave him 100 hits in 69 games, making him the third-fasted player in club history to reach 100 hits behind Darin Erstad (60 games in 2000) and Rod Carew (63 games in 1983).

In the second inning, Trout showed he has some power to match his speed, crushing a 442-foot, two-run home run to right-center field. According to ESPN, it was the second-longest opposite-field home run this season behind Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera (445 feet).

“I hit that one pretty good,” Trout said of his 13th home run. “It felt good off the bat.”

Trumbo, named the team’s full-time cleanup hitter before the game, crushed an 0-and-2 sinker from Jacob Turner, the Tigers’ top pitching prospect, for a 415-foot, three-run home run to left-center field in the first inning.

The outfielder leads the league with a .634 slugging percentage and ranks among the top five in home runs (26), runs batted in (65) and extra-base hits (44).

Only one player in Angels history has won a batting title, Alex Johnson in 1970. Only one Angel has led the league in slugging, Bobby Grich in 1981. The Angels could have league leaders in both categories this season.

“It’s fun to watch,” said Pujols, who was as good as a 21-year-old rookie in 2001 as Trout is this year. “Those guys come to play. They don’t take anything for granted. They don’t let numbers get to their head. They come prepared, and they go out there and perform.”

The home runs by Trumbo and Trout provided a seven-run cushion for rookie right-hander Garrett Richards, who gave up only three hits in seven innings against one of baseball’s better offenses, his only “fly in the ointment,” as Manager Mike Scioscia said, his four walks and one hit batter.

David Carpenter threw the last two innings, and the Angels ended Detroit’s string of games without being shut out at 158, a streak that dated to July 16, 2011.

“When we’re rolling like that, it makes my job a lot easier,” Richards said. “I just tried to go out and pound the zone and give us a ‘W.’ Tonight was one of those special nights where I had everything working.”

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

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