SEATTLE -- The lineup changes that manager Ron Washington drew up during Monday's off-day began to bear fruit in Wednesday's 9-3 loss to the Mariners to cap a two-game set at T-Mobile Park. But a promising start on both sides of the ball was dampened by an injury to Angels superstar Mike Trout before a nightmare seventh inning sent Los Angeles to its fifth straight loss.
The Angels manufactured a run in the first inning for the first time since April 17 and racked up 10 hits for the first time since April 10. They got production from both the new-look top of the order and the fresh faces at the bottom, along with another quality start from Tyler Anderson.
But all of that, at least temporarily, takes a back seat to Trout, who exited early after jamming his surgically repaired left knee on a sprint to first base.
Trout had gone 1-for-2 to start his day. In the third inning, he got jammed on a 94.2 mph sinker from Emerson Hancock and cued it the other way before bolting down the line at 29.7 ft./sec. -- his fastest sprint speed of the season -- but had to stretch a bit while lunging to the base.
Trout went back out to right field for the bottom of the third, but when his spot in the order came up next, with two on and two out in the fourth, Washington sent Jo Adell out to hit in his spot.
After the game, Trout said that he felt all right coming back into the dugout after the play itself, but when he went out to right field, it started to feel “weird.”
“When I started jogging in the outfield a little bit, I started feeling it a little more,” Trout said. “Wanted to be smart about it.”
Washington added: “It’s better to be cautious than to ignore it. So we took him out.”
After leaving the game, Trout was able to get checked by a doctor and undergo basic tests, all of which Trout said came back clean. Combined with ice and pulsed electromagnetic field therapy, Trout said he already felt improvement by the time the game ended.
“When it happened, it was just a weird feeling,” Trout said. “After getting treatment stuff, it actually feels a little better. Hopefully, it’s just a little scar tissue breaking up.”
As of now, Trout said he believes he can be back in the lineup when the Angels open up their four-game home set against the Tigers on Thursday.
The three-time MVP has a .173/.261/.462 slash line. His nine home runs are tied for fourth in the Majors.
It’s an untimely injury scare for Trout, who has reached the 100-game threshold in just one of the previous four seasons. His blazing start to the 2024 season was cut short exactly one year and one day ago with a torn meniscus in his left knee; he recovered from that injury in time to begin a rehab assignment in July, but only played two innings of it before feeling more discomfort, and further testing revealed another, separate tear that ultimately ended his season.
In 2023, a fractured hamate sent him to the IL on July 4; he played just one game after being activated before another injury ended that season completely. In 2021, a calf strain limited him to just 36 games.
Adell, pinch-hitting for Trout in the fourth, grounded out to end the frame. The Angels wouldn’t get another runner to scoring position until the top of the seventh, when Nolan Schanuel drew a walk and Adell singled to put two on with nobody out. Jorge Soler grounded out to move both runners into scoring position, but Logan O’Hoppe popped up and Luis Rengifo grounded out to end the threat.
In the bottom half of the inning, the Mariners started the same way -- putting a pair of runners on with infield singles -- but kept their line moving, sending 11 batters to the plate in a six-run frame against Reid Detmers and Ryan Johnson.
The Angels finished the day 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position, and left nine runners on base. Los Angeles’ streak of scoring five runs or fewer reached 17 games, its longest since June 22-July 12, 2022.
“We had our chance in the seventh inning, and we couldn’t get the ball out of the infield,” Washington said. “They had their chance in the seventh, and they put the ball in play and found holes and did what they had to do. And then we couldn’t get any outs.”