Mike Trout is a scary man. Unfortunately for him, on some nights — like tonight — he plays with a team of Little Leaugers.
The Indians made things ugly in the first with four runs, put it away in the second two more, and by the third inning Mike Clevinger was (mostly) ready to cruise his way to a 7-3 victory. Trout got his licks in with a first-inning homer and a hit later and a walk later on, but his only support came from an Albert Pujols hit and a mildly scary ninth inning thanks to Adam Cimber bending, but not breaking and giving an RBI double.
Clevinger worked a heavy dose of his slider-fastball combination for 60 of his 107 pitches. He induced only 10 swinging strikes total on the night (eight coming from 1-2 punch), but located 16 of his fastballs for called strikes. It’s weird to think about on a night where he went 6.1 innings and looked good through pretty effective in all but the final inning, but he might not have had his best stuff tonight. Still, he touched 96.5 mph on the radar gun at one point, and worked an eight strikeout night.
The ball that Mike Trout homered off him in the first inning, though, was absolutely tattooed at 109.4 mph. That obviously led the night in exit velocity, and the only other Angels batter in the top 10 was Pujols with the 10th hardest-hit ball at 100.8 mph.
Yasiel Puig continued to impress with his new team, knocking in his first RBI in his first at-bat and adding another single later on. He even offered up some, admittedly weak, finger guns with his first hit.
Only fellow newcomer Franmil Reyes and Jordan Luplow weren’t able to get hits on the night, while Francisco Lindor, Oscar Mercado, Puig, José Ramírez, and Jason Kipnis all added two. Roberto Pérez only had one, but it was a big one — his 19th home run of the season, and third in his last three games.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go swallow some bile and try to cheer for the Royals.