Trout was 6 of 16 with five homers and nine RBIs as the Angels and Yankees split four games. He became the first player to homer on four consecutive days at the current Yankee Stadium.
“It’s pretty surreal [given] all the great players that came through here,” Trout said. “So it’s pretty cool.”
Trout also was the first player to hit five home runs in a series against the Yankees since Toronto’s George Bell in 1990.
Trout had a .951 OPS from 2021-24 but played in only 266 games because of injuries. He has since played in 149 of a possible 182 games with an .826 OPS and 33 home runs.
His home run on Thursday was a 446-foot shot to left field that nearly cleared the bleachers. Four of his homers this season have been at least 420 feet and four had exit velocities of at least 109 miles per hour.
He’s also back to playing center field — and playing it well — after being mainly a DH last season.
Trout returning to All-Star form would be a great thing for the game. That’s something even opposing players acknowledge.
“You’ve got to acknowledge the greatness,” Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton said.
Trout hasn’t been an All-Star since 2023. Since being selected Most Valuable Player in 2019, he hasn’t finished in the top five of the voting over a full season.
With the All-Star Game in Philadelphia, only 45 miles from his hometown of Millville, N.J., Trout’s renaissance couldn’t come at a better time.
There are caveats here. Trout needs to stay off the injured list and it’s a question whether the patchwork Angels lineup can offer him some protection. But Trout seems to be enjoying playing for first-time manager Kurt Suzuki, a former teammate.
Suzuki is the sixth manager the Angels have had since Mike Scioscia retired after the 2018 season.
“He’s unbelievable,” Suzuki said on Thursday. “He really is. It’s been an amazing week for him.”
Trout, who is signed through 2030 at $37.1 million a year, is a first-ballot Hall of Fame talent. He’s a three-time MVP and 11-time All-Star with a career .977 OPS. That’s just behind Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio and just ahead of Stan Musial.
Trout left New York with 411 career homers. Only Stanton (455) has more among active players, with Aaron Judge (376) and Paul Goldschmidt (373) following.
When Goldschmidt, Judge, Stanton, and Trout played in the game Monday, it was the first time since at least 1900 that the top four active home run hitters were in the same game according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
The Angels don’t come to Fenway Park until September. Here’s hoping that Trout is healthy and still hitting.
CATCHER CONUNDRUM
Sox’ Wong making his case
Carlos Narváez was a baseball rarity last season, a strong defensive catcher and above-average hitter. But he started this season 8 for 41 (.195) with 14 strikeouts and one walk. Narváez struck out seven times in a row during the recent series against the Twins in Minnesota.
At the same time, Connor Wong opened the season 8 of 21 with four doubles. He drove in a run against the Twins on Wednesday and reached base twice against the Tigers on Friday. That earned him another start Saturday.
Is the position up for grabs? Alex Cora dodged the question a bit, saying both catchers would be needed with the Sox scheduled to play 13 days in a row. But he acknowledged that Narváez is struggling.
“There’s a lot of thinking that is going on,” Cora said.
Narváez was out of the lineup Wednesday and Cora found him in the batting cage during the game taking extra swings. The manager told him that was counterproductive.
“It’s the other way around. You have to detach yourself from the game,” Cora said. “He understood what the message was, don’t put pressure on yourself. He’s a great defender, we know that. Behind the plate he’s one of the best in the big leagues. Offensively, just contribute.”
A few other observations on the Red Sox:
▪ Memo to Garrett Crochet: Randy Johnson allowed 10 earned runs on eight hits — two of them homers — over 2⅓ innings on April 10, 1994, at Toronto. He went on to make the All-Star team and finish third in the Cy Young Award voting.
Crochet allowed 10 earned runs on nine hits over 1⅔ innings at Minnesota on Monday. He faces the Tigers on Sunday afternoon.
Tarik Skubal, Framber Valdez, and Crochet faced the Twins at Target Field over a span of seven days. They allowed 22 earned runs on 27 hits and seven walks over 11⅓ innings.
▪ The trade for Dustin May last season is somehow getting worse as now both young outfielders the Sox sent to the Dodgers are destroying Triple-A pitching.
James Tibbs III had a 1.147 OPS, 15 extra-base hits, and 16 RBIs through 19 games for Oklahoma City. Zach Ehrhard is off to a .338/.397/.523 start with the same team with 14 RBIs. Both are 23.
▪ Longtime Angels outfielder Garret Anderson, who died of a heart attack Friday at only 53, wore out the Red Sox during his career. He hit .312 with an .838 OPS and 91 RBIs in 129 regular-season games against the Sox. That included an .899 OPS and 61 RBIs in 74 games at Fenway Park.
Anderson also played in 10 postseason games against the Sox.
▪ As usual, the Sox have a number of team employees or their family members running the Marathon. The group includes assistant home clubhouse manager Josh Liebenow, Angelica Feliciano (Cora’s fiancée), and Brianna Madden (wife of bullpen catcher Charlie Madden).
ETC.
MLB Players Inc., the business division of the Players Association, announced an expanded agreement with Ceasars Entertainment on Wednesday for the official rights to players’ names and images for use across Caesars Sportsbook and its mobile and retail platforms.
This will include advertisements geared to certain markets. So Caesars could use the likeness of a Red Sox player to encourage Red Sox fans to gamble on games. The press release said the agreement increases the connection between fans and players “giving fans a richer and more engaging experience.”
Right, but only if you bet on that player.
Whether it’s at the ballpark or watching games on television, inducements to gamble are everywhere. Baseball is a big part of that business and the MLBPA is right to get its share of that revenue just like the owners are. They’d be fools not to.
But it also opens the door to more scandals like the one involving former Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase and teammate Luis Ortiz. They were arrested last November for purposely throwing pitches a certain way so an accomplice could win prop bets. Their trial in November is going to be a spectacle.
Ultimately, whatever amount of money an individual player makes from licensing agreements surely isn’t more than he could make fixing a game. What if that happens in the World Series? Or the All-Star Game?
Clase and Ortiz aren’t going to be the last players who — allegedly — drift down that path.
The MLBPA also made news a day later by firing chief operating officer Xavier James and chief human resources officer Michael O’Neill after an investigation found financial improprieties.
The interim COO is Chris Capuano, a West Springfield native who pitched in the majors from 2003-16 and joined the union staff in ′19.
Rafael Devers went into the weekend hitting .215 with a .578 OPS, 4 extra-base hits, and only 7 RBIs for the last-place Giants. It’s not bad luck, either, given his .286 batting average on balls in play. Devers had only 1.2 bWAR through 110 games with San Francisco … The Astros saw the addition of righthander Tatsuya Imai as a franchise milestone. He was the first free agent from Japan to sign with Houston and general manager Dana Brown billed it as evidence the team would become a bigger factor in the Asian market. Now Imai’s three-year, $54 million contract appears worrisome. He had a 7.27 ERA through three starts and is in the injured list with “arm fatigue.” Imai then told The Athletic that his arm issues are a product of not being able to adjust “to the American lifestyle” on and off the field. There were two dozen Japanese players in the majors last season. Did Imai not ask for any advice before he decided to play in the United States? His complaints included that it was 64 degrees for a game in Seattle, colder than he expected, and that players in the United States eat at the ballpark after games and not at the hotel. Theoretically, $18 million a year should help pay for excellent takeout if he wants to eat at the hotel … Ohtani only pitched against the Mets on Wednesday, the Dodgers giving him a day off as a hitter because of a bruise on is right shoulder. He allowed one run on two hits over six innings and struck out 10. He threw four 100-m.p.h. fastballs among his 95 pitches. The Dodgers used Dalton Rushing as the DH and all he did was go 2 for 4 with a grand slam. Ohtani was so dominant that you wonder if the Dodgers might do that more often … The Rays had nine sacrifices in their first 19 games, seven fewer than all of last season. They also had 22 stolen bases. They’ve taken a “contact-heavy” approach according to hitting coach Chad Mottola that is designed to pressure opposing defenses. Rays left fielder Chandler Simpson, who has hit one home run over nearly 1,600 at-bats going back to the minor leagues, reached base in the first 15 games of the season and scored nine runs while striking out only five times … Mets ace Nolan McLean is only the third pitcher since 1900 with 80 or more strikeouts while allowing 20 or fewer runs in his first 12 appearances. The others were Paul Skenes and Matt Harvey … Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed only six earned runs over 25⅔ innings over his first four starts for the Dodgers. He has a 2.61 ERA over 52 major league starts and belongs on the same tier as Skenes and Skubal. Counting the postseason, Yamamoto has a 2.55 ERA in 62 games with 367 strikeouts over 345⅓ innings. The Dodgers are 8-1 in postseason games Yamamoto started. The one relief appearance was the brilliant 2⅔ shutout innings in Game 7 of the World Series last fall. His 12-year, $325 million deal looks like a bargain … Christian Vázquez played his 1,000th regular-season game earlier this month, putting him 68th among active players. The only catchers ahead of him on that list are Salvador Perez and J.T. Realmuto … At 35, Trevor Bauer is eligible for the 2027 Hall of Fame ballot. The righthander has not appeared in a major league game since 2021 and assuming that doesn’t change, he will be considered for the BBWAA ballot, which is chosen by a committee. Major League Baseball suspended Bauer for 324 games (later reduced to 194) in 2022 for domestic violence and he was released by the Dodgers in 2023. He has since pitched in Japan and Mexico, and signed with the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League earlier this month. Bauer is not a particularly compelling candidate for Cooperstown. He was 83-69 with a 3.79 ERA over parts of 10 seasons and made the All-Star team once. He won the Cy Young Award with the Reds in the shortened 2020 season … They grow ‘em tough in Somerset. Orioles manager Craig Albernaz was hit in the right side of his face by a foul ball off the bat of Baltimore second baseman Jeremiah Jackson on Monday night at Camden Yards. Albernaz left the dugout to get checked out and returned in the sixth inning to hug Jackson after his grand slam. Then he went to a nearby hospital. Albernaz had seven fractures in his cheek and a broken jaw, but was back in the dugout on Tuesday. “We have a game. I’m physically able to be here, so let’s go,” he said. Jackson got his home run ball back and gave it to Albernaz after writing, “Sorry, homie,” on it … Jackson Holliday’s woes continue. The first pick of the 2022 draft by the Orioles has a .659 OPS over 209 games since making his debut at Fenway Park on April 10, 2024, and opened this season on the injured list with a broken right hamate bone. The 22-year-old hit .167 over 11 games in Triple-A on a rehab assignment, then had the assignment stopped because of what was said to be a sore wrist … MLB’s Trailblazer Series baseball development camp for girls 12-14 is this weekend in Vero Beach, Fla. The 90 participants include Caroline Armstrong (Barrington, R.I.), Penelope Burton (Londonderry, N.H.), Brenna Croteau (Londonderry, N.H.), Addison Egan (Auburn), Ava Lanzisero (Newton), Mia Sodre (Dracut), and Amelia Vega (Stoughton) … You wouldn’t expect Oklahoma State to find a shortstop in Rhode Island. But Rock Arnold of North Kingstown High is committed to the Cowboys and coach Josh Holliday, Matt’s younger brother … Get to a Bishop Feehan game to see Brody Bumila. The senior lefty struck out 27 over 10 no-hit innings in his first three starts. The only batters who reached were four who were hit by a pitch. Bumila is building up innings cautiously after getting an internal brace procedure last May … Happy birthday to Rick Miller, who is 78. The outfielder played 12 seasons for the Red Sox, from 1971-77 and then from 1981-85. He signed with the Angels as a free agent before the 1978 season then returned via a notable trade that sent Rick Burleson and Butch Hobson to Anaheim for Miller, Mark Clear, and Carney Lansford. In all, Miller played 1,101 games for the Sox, 21st in team history. Miller played baseball and basketball at Michigan State before the Sox took him in the second round of the 1969 draft. Miller started 116 games in 1973 and 74 in ’74 and was known for his good defense, but the arrival of Fred Lynn and Jim Rice made him a reserve. Miller became the first free agent to leave the Sox when he signed with the Angels. He was more of a regular player in his second stint with the Red Sox. Miller stayed in baseball for a few years as a college coach and managing summer league and independent clubs.
Peter Abraham can be reached at peter.abraham@globe.com. Follow him on Bluesky at peteabeglobe.bsky.social.
