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 The "best player in baseball" tag is one that must be lived up to,
and in the Angels' 7-4 win, Trout did what many who see him every
day have become accustomed to.
Trout homered, singled, walked, stole a base, scored twice and drove
in three runs to lead the resurgent Angels.
The win completed a two-game sweep for the Angels in Anaheim after
the teams split two at Dodger Stadium earlier this week. The Angels
have won six of seven overall.
Trout started the season slowly but has come on strong of late and
is now leading the team in hitting (.327), homers (10), RBIs (31),
on-base percentage (.416), slugging percentage (.588), walks (24),
stolen bases (4) and runs (28).
"You have to see Mike every day," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said.
"You can look at his numbers at the end of the year, and they're off
the charts. But when you see him every day, you see him beat out a
double-play ball to get an RBI, you see him steal a base, you see
the plays he makes in center field.
"His talent shows up regularly every night on the field whether it's
his legs, his arm, at the plate in the batter's box or on the
basepaths. Mike's always doing things that are helping us win. And
he did a lot tonight, obviously."
 Trout certainly is at the forefront of the Angels' offense, but he
is not the only hitter who is hot on his team. The Angels have
scored at least seven runs in six of their last eight games. By
contrast, they scored at least seven runs only twice in all of April
over 24 games.
They collected 11 hits Thursday, including Carlos Perez's first
homer of the season, three hits by Yunel Escobar, and two each from
Johnny Giavotella and Gregorio Petit. Giavotella had the big hit of
the night, a two-out, two-run single in the fifth inning that put
the Angels up for good.
Giavotella is one of those hot Angels, the second baseman extending
his hitting streak to eight in a row.
"I'm not doing anything differently, honestly, I'm just relaxing and
waiting on good pitches to hit," said Giavotella, who is hitting
.355 (22-for-62) over his past 18 games. "And just trusting my
talent and ability. A few weeks ago I was hitting the ball well but
had some bad luck, hitting the ball well but having nothing to show
for it, but that's how baseball works.
"It's a long season. You just have to keep grinding, and eventually
the ball will fall."
Neither starting pitcher was able to get through the fifth inning.
Angels starter Jhoulys Chacin went 4 1/3 innings, giving up four
runs on six hits and three walks. Dodgers starter Ross Stripling
(1-3) went 4 2/3 innings, giving up five runs on seven hits and
three walks.
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The pitching heroes on the night came from the Angels' bullpen. Jose
Alvarez, Greg Mahle, Fernando Salas and Joe Smith (fifth save)
combined for 4 2/3 scoreless innings, and they didn't allow a hit.
Alvarez (1-1) retired all five batters he faced.
The Dodgers' offense was led by Chase Utley, who had two hits and
scored three runs, and ex-Angel Howie Kendrick, who had a two-run
triple. Other than that, the Dodgers looked sluggish.
"For us, we can't sustain any traction, any momentum," Dodgers
manager Dave Roberts said. "So it's frustrating. It's frustrating,
and all the way around. There's some plays defensively, but the
pitching, the timely hitting, all that stuff, when you don't do
those things, it's tough to win."
The game was there for the taking for the Dodgers, who led 3-1 and
4-2 before finally giving up the lead for good in the fifth inning.
"Every time we scored tonight, they responded in the bottom half of
the inning," Roberts said. "We couldn't answer with a zero. Those
guys had some big hits. We had one early with Howie, but six hits, a
few walks, we couldn't get anything else going."
NOTES: The Angels signed RHP Tim Lincecum, a two-time National
League Cy Young award winner, to a one-year contract according to
numerous published reports. Lincecum will make approximately $2
million with the chance to make as much as $1.7 million more in
incentives. Lincecum, who had hip surgery last year, would need
about three to four weeks of minor league rehab starts before he is
ready to join the major league roster. ... The Dodgers called up RHP
Chin-hui Tsao from Triple-A Oklahoma City, and optioned RHP Mike
Bolsinger to Oklahoma City to make room on the roster. Tsao pitched
a scoreless inning Thursday night, but his stay on the roster may
not be long. The Dodgers are carrying 13 pitchers, but they likely
will go back down to 12 on Friday when they return to playing
National League games. ... Dodgers 1B Adrian Gonzalez took about 50
swings in the batting cage before Friday's game and reported his
back is fine, though he was not in the starting lineup for the third
game in a row. He was available for pinch-hitting duty.
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
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