Trout’s 3-run homer powers Angels past Blue Jays 9-5
By Greg Beacham, The Associated Press on April 8, 2023.
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) – The Angels celebrate homers by putting a celebratory hat on the head of the hitter when he returns to the dugout, and Shohei Ohtani picked out quite the new chapeau for this season: A samurai helmet made of metal and weighing several pounds. The Halos’ heavy hat got plenty of action in their first home victory of the season. Mike Trout hit a three-run homer in the fifth inning, and Los Angeles roared back from a four-run deficit for a 9-5 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday night. Ohtani doubled and scored in the fourth before Trout capped a four-run rally in the fifth by homering in his second straight game for the Angels, who have won five of seven. Hunter Renfroe hit his first homer for the Angels and drove in three runs, while Luis Rengifo also homered in the fifth. “We’ve got a really good chance of hitting the ball really hard this year, so we’ve got to keep going and stay healthy,” Renfroe said. Both Trout and Renfroe were surprised by the weight of the samurai helmet, which already broke the stand on which it was sitting in the Angels’ dugout. Renfroe figured he hadn’t worn a hat that heavy since he played football. “They’re having fun with it,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said of the helmet. “I like to see it on them, for sure.” Bo Bichette and Matt Chapman hit two-run homers in the third for the Blue Jays, whose four-game winning streak ended. George Springer also homered, but it was Toronto’s only run in the final six innings. Anthony Rendon had two singles and drove in a run in the Angels’ $245-million third baseman’s return from a four-game suspension for a confrontation with a fan in Oakland last week. “We swung the bats well,” Nevin said. “Really nice having Anthony back in there.” Tyler Anderson yielded three homers and five runs in his home debut with the Angels, failing to last five innings for the first time in 22 starts since June 9 with the Dodgers. Jaime Barria (1-0) escaped a jam in the fifth for Los Angeles. José BerrÃos (0-2) gave up six hits and four earned runs while pitching into the fifth for the Jays, lowering his ERA to 11.17. “Really good start, really strong stuff, and then got hurt with some pitches in the middle of the plate,” Toronto manager John Schneider said of BerrÃos. “Jose is going to be a big part of what we’re doing this year and beyond. If his stuff was down, it would be a little bit concerning, and that’s absolutely not the case. He’s going to get on a roll.” After pitching six scoreless innings last week in his first start since agreeing to a $39 million contract with the Angels, Anderson gave up seven hits and two walks. The late-blooming lefty allowed five earned runs in only one of his final 16 starts for the Dodgers during the 2022 All-Star campaign that led to his free-agent deal down the I-5 in Anaheim. Anderson said his performance was “not great. “¦ They had a good approach and made some good swings on some mistake pitches.” A day after hitting a decisive three-run homer in the seventh inning of Toronto’s 4-3 victory, Bichette had an extra-base hit in his sixth consecutive game at Angel Stadium while Toronto got four consecutive one-out hits off Anderson in the third. Chapman’s homer was his 11th at Angel Stadium. He went to high school in Orange County and then played at Cal State Fullerton, just a few miles away. Springer hit his first homer leading off the fifth, but the Angels took a 7-5 lead in the bottom half on the third homer of the season by Trout, who hit Adam Cimber’s pitch to almost exactly the same spot as his homer on Friday night. “When I’m out there, I feel like I’m the best player out there,” Trout said. “I’ve had that confidence since I was a kid.” UP NEXT Yusei Kikuchi (1-0, 1.80 ERA) takes the mound when Toronto wraps up its 10-game, season-opening road trip against Reid Detmers (0-0, 3.86) and the Halos. — AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports 25-24
