Neto breaks out of slump with homer thanks to ... Pokémon cards?

ANAHEIM -- As Zach Neto was getting ready to head to Angel Stadium before Tuesday’s game against the White Sox, teammate Mike Trout texted him that he had just received a large box of Pokémon cards and wanted some help opening them pregame.

Neto said it helped take his mind off his slump, especially after he pulled a rare Charizard card, much to his excitement. Trout told him that the box would bring both of them home runs, and it proved to be prophetic, as Trout went deep in the first and Neto connected on the go-ahead solo blast in the fifth inning of a 4-3 win at Angel Stadium. It came after Neto snapped an 0-for-23 funk with a single to right field in the third.

“It was just to get my mind off of it,” Neto said. “He said, ‘This case, when we rip it, it's going to have homers in it.’ And he hit one and I hit one later in the game. You saw him come over to me and hug me. He was just telling me, ‘Hey, I told you that case had homers.’ So it’s just those little things that matter the most to me.”

Neto’s blast made up for a miscue after his single in the third, as he was promptly picked off at first base by right-hander Erick Fedde, continuing his recent woes. But Neto made up for it in his next at-bat, as he crushed a go-ahead homer off Fedde in the fifth. It was Neto’s sixth homer of the year but his first in nearly a month, as his last came back on April 10.

“It felt amazing,” Neto said. “I was in my biggest slump ever in my career and just the sound of the bat again, it reminded me of a lot of good things. It’s just one of those things where it just takes one swing to get back into the mix of things.”

The Angels are hoping this will get Neto going, as he’s an incredibly important part of the team and led the club in wins above replacement in each of the last two seasons. But he’d been scuffling recently, as his last hit was a leadoff single on April 28 and he had struck out in 13 of his previous 22 at-bats coming into the game.

Neto, however, looked locked in against Fedde, including in his first at-bat, when he lined out sharply to right field on a 1-1 cutter off the outside edge.

“Sometimes little things like this can spark you and can kind of get that engine kickstarted again,” manager Kurt Suzuki said. “He had some good at-bats. I think his best at-bat might have been the line drive his first at-bat to right-center. I think that might have been his best swing. So really good night tonight for him and really happy for him.”

Neto’s home run came on a 2-2 sweeper from Fedde for a go-ahead blast with two outs in the fifth. He admired his shot to left field, as it was a no-doubter that left the bat at 104.7 mph and went a projected 410 feet, per Statcast.

It also sparked a two-out rally for the Angels, as Trout followed with a walk and scored on an RBI double from Schanuel that knocked Fedde from the game. Trout’s homer in the first inning put the Angels on the board, while Jorge Soler also went deep in the opening frame.

Neto struck out in his final at-bat to finish 2-for-4, registering his first multi-hit game since April 26. The 25-year-old is slashing .218/.327/.395 with six homers, eight doubles, seven stolen bases and 16 RBIs in 37 games.

“I’m just thankful for my teammates and my coaches talking to me every single day and trying to get my head out of it,” Neto said. “I’m very tough on myself individually. But having them be able to distract me like today with [Trout] and the Pokémon cards, just kind of doing anything I can to just get my head out of baseball and focus on what I need to do.”