OC Register: Mike Trout belts two homers among his five hits in Angels victory

[AngelsWin.com]

CHICAGO — Could have seen this one coming.

Mike Trout’s latest offensive explosion was sparked by one of his favorite victims, James Shields.

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After blasting two homers and equaling his career high with five hits in the Angels’ 12-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Saturday night, Trout has six homers in 21 career plate appearances against Shields, including his only postseason homer.

The only pitcher who has given up more homers to Trout is Felix Hernandez, who has given up eight Trout homers … in 93 plate appearances.

Trout had hit just one homer in 12 games since returning from the disabled list. He had one other extra base hit in that time.

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Then he stepped into the box against Shields, who obliged him by twice throwing him 3-and-2 pitches right over the middle of the plate, belt high. In the first inning, Shields threw him a fastball. In the third, he threw a knuckle curve.

Trout hammered both of them, blasting a two-run shot to center field in the first and yanking a three-run homer to left field in the third. In the fifth, Shields was a little more careful with Trout, throwing a cutter a little higher in the zone. Trout simply served it into center field for a single.

Trout is now 9 for 18 against Shields, with three walks, including the postseason.

After Shields was done, Trout also singled against reliever Juan Minaya in the seventh and against Jace Fry in the ninth, for his second career five-hit game. The five RBIs matched Trout’s career high, a figure he hadn’t reached since 2015.

Shohei Ohtani, who was batting cleanup between Trout and Justin Upton for the first time, added two hits and a walk, including a three-run triple in the ninth to put the game away.

It was enough offense to get a victory for Matt Shoemaker, whose second start since coming off the disabled list did not go as smoothly as his first.

After shutting out the Texas Rangers for five innings on Monday, Shoemaker gave up three runs on seven hits in five innings on Saturday. The White Sox scored one in the first and then single runs in the third and fourth, both times after Shoemaker had retired the first two hitters of the inning.

More to come on this story.

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