Mike Trout home run daily: His first HR against the Yankees

This is the Mike Trout home run daily, where we review all 285 home runs of the Angels superstar’s career, but one game at a time. We use a random number generator to select each game, and today’s installment was very early on in Trout’s career.

This was May 28, 2012, hosting the Yankees in Anaheim on Memorial Day.

The game itself was wild, a 9-8 win by the Angels that saw every Halos starter get at least one hit. Mark Teixeira homered and reached base five times for the Yankees, while Mark Trumbo was a single shy of the cycle and hit a walk-off home run.

However the main story from the game was starter Jered Weaver leaving after just three batters with a lower back injury that would cause him to miss three weeks. This was my first time seeing Trout play in person, and my game story for Sports Xchange only mentioned Trout in passing:

“[Phil] Hughes allowed seven runs on 11 hits, including a fourth-inning solo home run by Angels rookie Mike Trout.”

Trout’s home run widened the Angels’ lead to 6-4, one of two hits in the game for the rookie. At 20 years, 295 days old, Trout was the second-youngest Angel to homer against the Yankees, behind only Ed Kirkpatrick in 1963-64.

This was the 10th home run in Trout’s career, in his 68th game. It would only take him 44 games to hit his next 10.