Trout's 2 HRs thrill fans on his bobblehead night

ANAHEIM -- It was Mike Trout Silver Slugger bobblehead night at Angel Stadium on Friday, and the superstar didn’t disappoint. A day after hitting his first home run of the season, he doubled his effort and smacked two crucial homers in a 3-1 win over the Rangers at Angel Stadium.

Trout single-handedly provided all the offense the Angels would need, helping the club snap a five-game losing streak with their first home win of the season.

"It means a lot,” Trout said. “We've been struggling lately. Pitching's been great, but the offensive side has been struggling. We've just got to trust it. We're working hard every day, and, obviously, we want to go out there and score a bunch of runs. … These games right here can get some momentum going, and, hopefully, we can win a couple."

After homering Thursday when an 11-4 loss was all but decided, Trout came up to the plate Friday with the game tied 1-1 in the sixth inning. He crushed a solo shot off veteran right-hander Lance Lynn. Trout got ahead in the count, 2-0, and didn’t miss a 93 mph fastball that was right over the heart of the plate.

“I threw the ball right down the middle,” Lynn said. “He did what he was supposed to do. He just got $430 million reasons to hit the ball out of the ballpark. Terrible pitch.”

Trout's homer to right-center left the bat at 102.5 mph and went a projected 389 feet. He came up again with two outs in the eighth and walloped a 3-1 cutter from Jesse Chavez to nearly the same spot just right of center. The second blast left the bat at 103.6 mph and went a projected 391 feet, per Statcast.

“When he went to 3-1, I just tried to get a pitch in the zone and, obviously, [he] left it more middle than he would like,” Trout said. “Just getting a pitch you can drive. I can't go up there saying that they're not going to pitch to me, because then if they do throw in there you're not going to hit it.”

It was 89th time in his career Trout had hit a homer in a tie game and was also his 15th career multi-homer game. He has reached base safely in all eight games this season.

The offense was otherwise mostly held in check by Lynn, but the Angels did just enough to get their second win of the season. Brian Goodwin sparked a rally in the third with a one-out double and scored on a single from Kole Calhoun. But it was Trout who did the most damage, and his 28 career homers against the Rangers has him tied with Khris Davis for the most among active players.

"He is the best player in the game," Rangers manager Chris Woodward said of Trout. "The guys behind him aren’t. Just looking at it from that standpoint, we talked about him not beating us. Unfortunately, we made a couple of mistakes tonight and he beat us. He reminds me of Barry Bonds. Make a mistake to Barry, and he seemed to hit it out every time.”

Pena solid; bullpen does the rest
Right-hander Felix Peña pitched his way out of a few jams that hurt his efficiency, but it was an improvement on his first start. He allowed just one run on four hits with seven strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings. He gave up a run in the fourth on Joey Gallo's second homer in as many days and was helped by a strong defensive play from Goodwin to rob Ronald Guzman of extra bases to end the fourth. Goodwin had to cover 105 feet on the play, and it had a catch probability of 50 percent, per Statcast.

After Pena departed, relievers Justin Anderson, Hansel Robles, Ty Buttrey and closer Cody Allen combined to throw 4 1/3 scoreless frames to preserve the victory. Anderson got the win, and Allen got his first save with the Angels.

“We've struggled here as of late, but it was time to put everything together for a night and win a ballgame and get some momentum going for tomorrow,” Allen said. “It's a good thing. I'm glad [Trout] is on our club. He kind of threw us on his back tonight."