Trout puts Angels ahead with 3rd homer in 2 games, and this time Judge and Yankees don’t bounce back

NEW YORK (AP) — Mike Trout hit another go-ahead home run, and this time Aaron Judge and the New York Yankees didn’t come back.

Finding his power groove after a mechanical tweak of his swing, Trout hit a 445-foot home run, the first of three Angels long balls in a five-pitch span of the first inning off Ryan Weathers, and Los Angeles beat the Yankees 7-1 on Tuesday night.

Trout has three home runs in the first two games of the four-game series, raising the three-time AL MVP’s season total to five. Jo Adell and Jorge Soler followed with home runs.

“He’s unbelievable,” Angels starter Reid Detmers said. “He’s Mike Trout for a reason. He’s fun to watch. Watching him and Judge go against each other, it’s just fun to watch.”

Trout, like Judge a three-time AL MVP, started taking a step back before his swing last weekend in Cincinnati. He is 6 for 21 with 10 RBIs in his last five games,

“It just keeps from getting stuck and spinning and being under the ball,” Trout said of the adjustment.

Trout and Judge each homered twice on Monday in the Angels’ 11-10 walk-off loss.

Trout homered for his third straight at-bat when he hit a 2-1 fastball to the loading dock adjacent to Monument Park in center field. The only other time he homered in three straight at-bats was in April 2019 according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

“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 had often stepped back in the batter’s box before taking swing during batting practice. He never did it in a game until the final month of last season when former hitting coach Jay Washington suggested it.

Trout ended last season by hitting six homers in his final seven games. He finished last season with a .232 average, 26 homers and 60 RBIs in 130 games, his most since 2019.

“For sure, it gets me to a good spot to be able to go forward instead of when I don’t do it,” Trout said. “It’s just I get stuck back there and then I just spin off my back leg and that’s when I get under and start chasing.”

Trout abandoned the approach during spring training, then reverted to it after hitting .190 through his first 12 games.

“I was doing it in BP and never took it in the game until like the last month, had success with it and did it in the offseason and came in the spring I felt like I was in a spot where I didn’t really need to do it,” Trout said.

Adell and Soler also homered off fastballs, the 15th time the Angels hit three straight homers and first since June 24, 2023.

Trout’s latest homer sent the Yankees to their sixth loss in seven games. New York’s previous nine games had been decided by two runs or fewer and the Yankees did not score until Ben Rice hit a pinch hit sacrifice fly in the eighth.

“I think you see how streaky this game is,” Goldschmidt said. “You just got to take in stride and day by day.”

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/mlb