Mike Trout was hitting the ball hard but running into tough luck for the past few games before arriving at Yankee Stadium.
In the past two nights, he has hit the ball hard and over the wall for the Los Angeles Angels.
The Angels hope to see another big night from Trout and their offense on Wednesday when they play the third contest of a four-game series against the host New York Yankees.
The Angels have 17 runs on 24 hits in the first two games and evened the series with a 7-1 rout on Tuesday. After Trout homered in the sixth and eighth innings on Monday, the Angels absorbed an 11-10 loss on a game-ending wild pitch.
On Tuesday, Trout homered in the first inning off Ryan Weathers.
Jo Adell and Jorge Soler also went deep as the Angels hit three homers in a span of five pitches.
Trout is 6-for-21 with three homers and 10 RBIs over his past five games and has raised his batting average from .190 to .222.
“Honestly, he’s swinging the bat the same he has been, and now he’s getting it to go far,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said.
Trout’s latest homer was part of big night for the Angels, whose 26 homers lead the American League. Former Yankee Oswald Peraza also homered and had three hits while Yoan Moncada went deep and drove in three runs.
“It was good,” Trout said. “Last night’s game, just the back and forth. Obviously it didn’t come out with what we wanted to with the loss, but we came back and turned the page quick.”
After snapping a five-game skid by getting two homers apiece from Aaron Judge and Trent Grisham on Monday, the Yankees took their most lopsided loss so far. New York was held to five hits and struck out 12 times.
Judge was 1-for-4 with two strikeouts while Paul Goldschmidt and Giancarlo Stanton were a combined 0-for-7 with four strikeouts.
“I think you see how streaky this game is,” Goldschmidt said. “You just got to take in stride and day by day.”
After New York saw a starter allow more than three runs for the first time, Right-hander Luis Gil (0-1, 6.75 ERA) will make his second start Wednesday, and the Yankees hope to see some better command.
Gil made his season debut Friday when he allowed three runs, three hits and walked three over four innings in a 5-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. He issued 33 walks in 57 innings during his 11 starts last season, when he missed four months with a lat strain.
Gil is 2-0 with a 1.00 ERA in a pair of starts against the Angels, who have four hits off him in 13 innings.
After Reid Detmers saved the Angels’ bullpen by pitching into the eighth on Tuesday, Jack Kochanowicz (2-0, 3.24 ERA) can match his win total from last season, when he was 3-11 with a 6.81 ERA in 23 starts.
The right-hander has struggled with command by issuing 11 walks in 16 2/3 innings and survived four free passes when he allowed a run on two hits in seven innings during Friday’s 10-2 win at Cincinnati.
Kochanowicz is 0-1 with a 4.50 ERA in two career starts against the Yankees.
–Field Level Media
