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One of the worst parts of baseball being on hold is that we are robbed of Mike Trout highlights. I mean, sure, his various golf highlights and narrating MLB videos can get us through a day or two of these dark times, but we still need something daily about Mike Trout.
Trout in his career has hit 285 home runs, 15 shy of passing Tim Salmon for the most in Angels history. Those 285 home runs have been hit in 267 different games. I decided to add his lone postseason home run (from 2014) and two All-Star Game home runs (2015 and 2018) into the mix, so we have a 270-game sample. The plan is to write about one of these games daily, this will get us basically to Christmas, or until the 2020 season starts again, whichever comes first.
I’m going to use a random number generator to pick which of the 270 games to write about each day. We’ll go over the specifics behind each home run, share the video if applicable, note any sort of historical significance, and share what was written about the home run at the time.
That brings us to our first entry in the Mike Trout daily home run log: Sept. 15, 2015, at the Mariners.
The Angels’ road trip brought them through Seattle, and this Trout home run came in the sixth inning against Felix Hernandez, Trout’s most frequent opponent. The two have faced off 99 times in nine years, 38 more plate appearances than any other pitcher against Trout. He has eight home runs against Hernandez (also his most against any pitcher, and Hernandez’s most allowed to any batter), hitting .352/.404/.716.
The loss for Hernandez against the Angels was rare, especially given his dominance since the start of 2014. From Jeff Fletcher in the Orange County Register: “In nine starts over the past two seasons, Hernandez had allowed just five earned runs in 61 innings, an 0.74 ERA.”
The 4-3 win moved the Angels to 73-71, but though they were barely over .500 they were on the periphery of contention, still a reasonable 3½ games back of Houston for the second wild card spot with 18 games left to play.
This home run was Trout’s 36th of the season, tying his career high set one year earlier. It was the 134th home run of Trout’s career. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.