Taylor Ward, Jo Adell, Mike Trout lead Angels' homer binge in 11-1 rout of Rays

Jeff Fletcher, The Orange County Register on Apr 10, 2025

Published in Baseball

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TAMPA, Fla. — When the Angels took early batting practice Tuesday at George Steinbrenner Field, Ron Washington had a feeling what might happen in this series.

“Everything they were hitting was leaving,” the Angels manager said.

It was a sign of things to come.

With the weather getting warmer each of the three days here, the Angels kept knocking balls over the fence, highlighted by a six-homer outburst in an 11-1 victory over the Rays on Thursday afternoon.

The barrage helped the Angels (8-4) win their fourth straight series to start the season, something they hadn’t done since 2018.

Jo Adell, Taylor Ward and Mike Trout hit two homers apiece, with Adell becoming the first Angels player since Kendrys Morales in 2012 to hit two homers in an inning.

Adell hit the first and last homers in the Angels’ four-homer fifth inning. That matched a franchise record, last achieved at Coors Field in 2023.

It was the third time in franchise history the Angels had three players with multi-homer games, most recently when Troy Glaus, Tim Salmon and Mo Vaughn did it in 2000.

Trout hit his fourth and fifth homers of the season. Trout’s first homer, which was hit down the right-field line, was the only one that was a true product of the cozy dimensions at Steinbrenner Field. The Rays are playing this season in a minor league park because of hurricane damage to Tropicana Field.

The Angels hit 11 homers in the series, including four solo homers in a loss Wednesday. They could have had one more Thursday, but Nolan Schanuel was robbed of a homer by leaping right fielder Jake Mangum.

For Ward and Adell, the homers helped them change direction after getting out of the gate slowly.

Ward was hitting .190 without a homer in the first 10 games, but hit his first homer of the season Wednesday night. He then added another to lead off the game Thursday, and then one in the middle of the four-homer fifth.

Adell was hitting .185 without a homer prior to Thursday’s game.

Considering the way the ball was flying over the fence Thursday, the Angels had the right pitcher on the mound: ground-ball specialist José Soriano.

Soriano gave up one run in 7 2/3 innings, throwing 93 pitches. Soriano is the only pitcher this season to work at least seven innings for the Angels, and he’s now done it twice. He improved his ERA to 2.70 through his first three starts.

Soriano induced 13 ground balls, compared to only two outs in the air. Three of those grounders were converted to double plays.