Trout hits 15th HR as Angels cruise past Jays

TORONTO -- The Angels enjoyed their most productive day at the plate in two weeks on Thursday afternoon, as Mike Trout and Albert Pujols homered and Martín Maldonado drove in three runs to fuel an 8-1 win over the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.
After rallying for four runs in the ninth inning to emerge with a 5-4 comeback win on Wednesday, the Angels continued to show signs of an offensive turnaround, producing 12 hits -- eight for extra bases -- after going 11 consecutive games with nine or fewer. Pujols, Maldonado, Andrelton Simmons, Justin Upton and Shohei Ohtani all delivered multihit efforts for the Angels, who improved to 28-22 overall and 16-5 on the road, the best winning percentage in the Majors.

"I'm sure it'll even out," Trout said, "but we just get hot when it seems like we're on the road."
The club's resurgent bats backed an impressive bounceback performance from right-hander Nick Tropeano, who fired 7 1/3 innings of one-run ball to pick up his second win of the year and lower his ERA to 3.86. Tropeano had endured his shortest outing of the season in his last start against the Rays on Friday, when he allowed four runs over 2 2/3 innings.

"Nick was terrific," manager Mike Scioscia said. "I think as the game went on into probably the mid-innings, his fastball got some more life to it, so he got stronger as the game went on. I thought he had a good combination, using all his offspeed pitches. There were some stretches where he got behind some hitters and had to try to get back into counts, but outside of that, that's a great effort."
Tropeano limited the Blue Jays to four hits while walking one and striking out six. He carried a shutout into the sixth inning before yielding a solo homer to Dwight Smith Jr. on a splitter. Angels trainer Eric Munson and Scioscia then came out to the mound to check on Tropeano after he stumbled off the mound during his next at-bat against Josh Donaldson, but Tropeano remained in the game and completed the rest of his outing without issue.
"I just took a little cartwheel spill," Tropeano said. "My cleat just got stuck, took a little spill, tried to make it as graceful as possible. I'm good."
Maldonado opened the scoring with a two-run single off Blue Jays starter Marco Estrada in the second inning. After Ohtani walked and Simmons doubled, Maldonado ripped a first-pitch fastball to left field to give the Angels a 2-0 lead. Maldonado is batting .377 this month after posting a .156 clip in March and April.

Pujols added an RBI single in the third before Trout launched his 15th home run of the season off the top of the left-center-field wall to make it 4-0 in the fifth. Trout, who also stole a base in the first and is now 12-for-12 in stolen-base attempts this year, has hit at least one home run against Toronto in each season since 2012.
The Angels capped their offensive output by scoring two runs in the ninth on Pujols' seventh home run of the season -- a 419-foot bomb off Deck McGuire that landed in the upper-deck stands in left field -- and Simmons' RBI single. Ohtani set up Simmons' hit by hustling for a double after bouncing a ball to center field.

The Angels have now scored five or more runs in back-to-back games after doing so just once in their previous 11 games.
"It was just a matter of time with these guys," Tropeano said. "You see all these guys in the lineup -- once it starts clicking, it's going to be dangerous. It's fun to see it today, for sure."

SOUND SMART
Scioscia picked up his 1,598th career win on Thursday, leaving him only one shy of tying his mentor, Tommy Lasorda, for 20th on the all-time managerial wins list.
MITEL REPLAY OF THE DAY
On Ohtani's double, he was initially called out by second-base umpire Mike DiMuro. The Angels issued a challenge after replay showed that Ohtani slid into the bag ahead of Devon Travis' tag, and the ruling was ultimately overturned.

UP NEXT
The Angels will head to New York and open a three-game series against the Yankees on Friday at 4:05 p.m. PT at Yankee Stadium. Left-hander Andrew Heaney (2-3, 3.35 ERA) will battle ace right-hander Luis Severino (7-1, 2.35 ERA) in the opener. Heaney has pitched to a 1.45 ERA over his last five outings and is 1-0 with a 1.50 ERA in two career starts against the Yankees. The Angels were swept by the Yankees during their three-game series in Anaheim last month.