Mike Trout home run daily: Player of the Month

Welcome back to the Mike Trout home run daily, where we look back at all the home runs of Mike Trout’s career, one game at a time. We use a random number generator to determine the game, and today we go back to Trout’s rookie year.

Trout didn’t get called up in 2012 until April 28, nearly a month into the season. He was excellent right away, and through May and June he was exceeding all expectations. But in July he took things to a new level, and won his first American League Player of the Month award. Today’s home run came on July 31, 2012.

The Angels were in Texas on a Tuesday night, the middle game of a three-game series. Trout already homered in the opener. Up 1-0 in the sixth inning in this one, with Chris Iannetta on first base after a walk, Trout took Derek Holland deep.

Scroll to 4:29 of this video to watch:

This was Trout’s 18th home run of the season, and 23rd of his career. When he walked in the seventh inning and scored, that was his 100th career run, in his 121st game. That’s the fastest to 100 career runs in Angels history, beating Darin Erstad by 26 games.

July 2012 was incredible for Trout, who hit 10 home runs in 25 games, hitting .392/.455/.804 with 32 runs scored and 23 RBI. He even stole nine bases without getting caught. Trout won the first of five career Player of the Month awards, to date.