The Los Angeles Angels are in New York, which means Mike Trout is killing it at Yankee Stadium for the Halos.
Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout is a card-carrying Jersey guy, and the New York Yankees collectively cringe when he comes to Yankee stadium. It doesn’t matter that the New Jersey town where Trout grew up, Millville, is down near the Delaware Bay where the closest city is Atlantic City--Trout kills the Yankees when he comes to town, and he basically owns Yankee Stadium .
We haven’t seen this a lot lately because Trout’s been injured, but Trout had his fourth home run of the series as he’s picked up right where he left off when healthy against the Bronx Bombers. The Angels lost two of the first three games because of bad relief and spotty defense, but don’t blame Trout for that.
“He’s tremendous,” manager Kurt Suzuki said in a piece written by Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. “It's been fun to watch. He's been having great at-bats, even his outs are good at-bats. He’s just got to keep it going, but he's been fun to watch.”
Trout is a three-time AL MVP and an 11-time All-Star, and he showed off for several family members, according to Bollinger, with the homer he hit off Yankee starter Luis Gil yesterday. It made him just the second visiting player to homer on three consecutive day at the current version of Yankee Stadium, with teh first being Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers in 2013.
Trout’s also been dueling with Yankee outfielder Aaron Judge, and his surge upped his career average at Yankee Stadium to .344. He’s pointed to a recent change in his mechanics as a change that’s helped him get going, although Trout also pointed out to writers that this shift dates back to spring training. He now takes a step backward before starting his swing, and he brought it back after a slight slump to produce a slash line of .239/.393/.552 with six homers, three doubles, two stolen bases and 15 RBIs in 18 games this season.
“I was doing it in BP and never took it in a game until like the last month last season,” Trout said. “And I had success with it. I did it the whole offseason, and when I came into spring, I felt like I was in a spot where I didn't really need to do it. But after the first week, I kind of felt stuck again back there and I started doing it again in Cincinnati. So it’s just like a little modification to get me going earlier.”
Trout also joined an exclusive list of Yankee killers, and only three have hit more than Trout’s four homers in a series against the Yankees. All of them have five: George Bell in June 1990, Darrell Evans in September 1985 and Jimmie Foxx in June 1933, according to Bollinger.
Trout’s Angel teammates have picked up on the homer thing, too, and last night it was Adam Frazier in the third inning and Logan O’Hoppe, who grew up as a Yankee fan on Long Island and got his first home run of the year last night.
“You're watching a future Hall of Famer go to work and have some great at-bats, and I think guys feed off of that,” Suzuki said. “Young guys, veteran guys, they all feed off of him. So it's been great for the team.”