BOSTON – Mike Trout can cross Fenway Park off his home run to-do list.
Trout hit the first home run of his career at Fenway and the Los Angeles Angels snapped an eight-game losing streak with a 12-4 rout of the Boston Red Sox on Saturday.
Shohei Ohtani had a multihit game for Los Angeles that included a two-run single in the seventh.
Trout, with his 428-foot (130-meter) drive over the Green Monster in the sixth inning, has now homered in every American League ballpark. He had played 21 games in Boston without connecting.
“I didn’t think about it,” Trout said. “I think I got reminded about it every time I’ve come here.”
After two at-bats against Red Sox starter Rick Porcello in which he struck out and grounded out, Trout came up again and Porcello missed on a fastball that went straight over the middle of the plate.
Trout made him pay for it.
“I hit it good,” Trout said. “He pitched me tough my first two at-bats. I was looking for a pitch to hit and I got one.”
The homer was Trout’s 39th this season, tying for the major league lead with Milwaukee’s Christian Yelich.
Trout was replaced in the seventh, having been hit in his shoulder by a pitcher earlier in the game. Trout was feeling fine.
Justin Upton added a three-run homer in the first inning.
The loss denied Boston its first three-game win streak since it won three straight games against the Yankees last month. It’s also yet another head-scratching setback for the defending World Series champions, who looked to be turning a corner following an eight-game losing streak last month.
“We’ll keep working, we’ll keep going,” manager Alex Cora said. “There were some positives, but obviously at the end we need results as a team.”
Astros 23, Orioles 2
In Baltimore, Rookie Yordan Alvarez hit three of Houston’s six home runs and drove in a career-high seven runs to help the Astros to the highest scoring game in franchise history.
The win was the eighth straight for the Houston, which became the latest team to feast on the reeling Orioles. Baltimore has allowed a major league-leading 240 homers and lost five straight.
It was the second 20-run game in Astros history. Houston also beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 21-5 on Oct. 2, 2015. The 13 extra-base hits set a franchise record.
Alex Bregman, who went 3 for 3, and Alvarez set the tone with back-to-back homers in the first inning. Alvarez added the grand slam in the seventh and a two-run shot in the ninth.
Source : Baseball – The Japan Times