Mike Trout home run daily: Passing Brian Downing

Mike Trout enters this shortened 2020 season 14 home runs shy of matching Tim Salmon’s franchise record of 299 long balls. Today’s Trout home run brings us back to June 12, 2018, when he climbed up the all-time list.

Brian Downing held the Angels record for most home runs since 1987, until Salmon passed him in 2000. Downing in his 13 years with the Halos his 222 home runs.

Trout entered this Tuesday night game in Seattle tied with Downing for third on the franchise home run list (Garret Anderson is in second place), thanks to hitting two home runs the night before in the series opener.

Trout singled in the first inning, then hit a solo home run off Mike Leake in the fifth to tie the game at 1-1. Trout is 14-for-30 (.467) with three career home runs off Leake. This was the first of those homers.

Down 4-1 in the seventh inning, with two outs, a runner on second, and first base open, Seattle opted to pitch to Trout, and he hit a pitch from reliever Ryan Cook off the scoreboard in left field, pulling the Angels to within a run.

In addition to the two home runs, Trout also made a leaping catch at the wall in the first inning, robbing Nelson Cruz of extra bases. It was a big day.

The outburst for Trout gave him 23 homers on the season, and 224 in his career, in sole possession of third place on the Angels’ all-time home run list.

Trout has 18 career two-homer games, and this was the only time he had two such games in a row. He hit .514/.605/1.171 (18-for-35) with 12 extra-base hits in nine games at Safeco Field in Seattle in 2018.