Mike Trout's 1000th game has him walking, Valbuena & Calhoun hammering and the Halos beating Blue Jays 8-5

Angels 8 Blue Jays 5

In what was already-legendary ballplayer Mike Trout's 1000th game in the bigs, he showed us one of his best, and perhaps most important attributes: Getting on base, any way he can. Trout had yet another game where he drew three walks, and he scored a run on a wild pitch, which is what the guy does best.

He gets on, even when the opposition isn't giving him anything to crank over the fence, and he manufactures runs. The MVP of our hearts is truly a master over the domain that is home plate. Meanwhile, he let some other Angels players do all the big hitting, which gave the Halos and their pitching staff a nice cushion for most of this weekend series opener.

Luis Valbuena hadn't hit a jack since late May, in a game where he homered twice. Well, tonight he finally broke that slump and wouldn't you know, he homered not once, but twice! That's baseball for ya. Speaking of guys who are in a long ball groove, Kole Calhoun hit his second big fly in as many games, which is great considering he's only been back from the DL foras many games, as well.

All in all, the Halos poured on the runs, and then they got good, or good enough, nights from starter John Lamb and normally-iffy bullpen guys like Noe Ramirez. That's how you take a series opener and that's how you win two in a row, on top of that. The Angels are gaining ground in the AL West, y'all, don't give up hope!