Mike Trout home run daily: A Royal pain

Welcome back to the Mike Trout home run daily, where we look back at every single home run in Mike Trout’s career, one game at a time. We use a random number generator to figure out which game falls on each day.

On April 12, 2018, the Angels’ Nick Tropeano was in a pitching duel with Ian Kennedy of the Royals in Kansas City. This was a 1-0 pitchers’ duel until the seventh, when Trout singled and scored in a five-run rally.

In the eighth inning, Trout worked Brandon Maurer for an 11 pitch at-bat before homering, a line drive just over the wall in center field.

It was Trout’s fifth home run of the season, and 206th of his career. He had three hits and a walk in the Angels’ 7-1 win. Trout hit 22 of his 39 home runs on the road in 2018.

Trout is 6-for-11 (.545) with a homer, triple, and double against Maurer in his career.

Trout’s big day helped the Angels cruise to a 7-1 victory, part of their hot start to 2018. The Halos dropped their road opener in Oakland before winning the final three of that series. On this road trip, they swept the Rangers, and would sweep the Royals, too. Later in the month, the Angels won their first two games in Houston for their 11th straight road win, tying the franchise record.