Trout 'just missing pitches' during slump

ANAHEIM -- Even Mike Trout isn't immune to slumps.
The Angels superstar saw his hitless skid extend to 17 at-bats after going 0-for-3 in the Halos' 7-5 loss to the Astros on Sunday at Angel Stadium. It marked one of the longest droughts of his career, surpassed by only his 0-for-18 stretch in August 2014, the year he won his first American League MVP Award.
Trout (aka "KIIIIID" for Players Weekend) has been one of the most consistent hitters in baseball over the last six seasons, but he's gone 3-for-28 with 10 walks and nine strikeouts over his last eight games. The 26-year-old center fielder said he believes he's been "just a tick late" getting his foot down.
"At the plate, it's just missing pitches," Trout said. "I'm having good at-bats, just getting pitches to hit and fouling them off."
Despite his rare slump, Trout is still batting .318 with 26 home runs and a 1.098 OPS, the highest mark of his career, and the Angels are confident that he'll snap out of his funk soon.
"I think every hitter in the game, no matter if you're Mike Trout or you're anybody, at times you're not going to square the ball up as well as you have at some point," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "He's still taking his walks. He's getting on base. He's just missing pitches he's been hitting earlier. He'll find it. He'll get it back. There's going to be some little downturns that everybody is going to have, and he's having his right now."
Trout nearly picked up the Angels with his glove in the eighth inning on Sunday, as he had a chance to snag a drive off the bat of Brian McCann, but the sun complicated matters and allowed the ball to hit off the wall just beyond his reach for a triple that drove in the deciding runs of the game.

"I knew it was hit pretty good," Trout said. "At night time, I'd catch it. I just couldn't take my eyes off it with the sun. We were battling the sun the whole day. In the outfield, it was tough today. I just told myself I had to jump and just missed it."