ANAHEIM, Calif. _ Moments after a baseball disappeared into the outfield hedges at Angel Stadium, Mike Trout pitched his voice just loud enough for the person a few feet in front of him to hear over the din of piped-in crowd noise.
"Simba," he said, mirth evident in the comment captured by a microphone provided him by Fox Sports West, "I'm comin.' "
Andrelton Simmons _ or, Simba _ had broken into a slow jog when Trout homered in the first inning of Friday night's 6-5, 11-inning victory against the Houston Astros. Trout's trot around the bases was nowhere near as leisurely.
Perhaps it should have been. The homer had not only given the Angels an early 2-0 lead over an Astros rotation that had held opponents to a combined .182 batting average in their first plate appearances of a game. It had put Trout atop MLB's home run leaderboard.
The blast, his 14th of the season and 299th of his career, had also lifted Trout to the top of the franchise leaderboard, where fellow Angels icon Tim Salmon had sat for more than a decade.
Trout launched a 1-and-0 offering from Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr. 412 feet to center field to tie Salmon on the list. The pitch was a clear mistake _ a cement-mixer that died smack in the middle of the strike zone. Trout muscled it with ease.
Trout only enjoyed a brief moment leading the MLB home run race. Fernando Tatis Jr. of the San Diego Padres launched his 14th in a win over the Oakland Athletics.
Salmon knew years ago that Trout, who has been named the American League's most valuable player three times since debuting at 19 in 2011, would catch him on the Angels' home run list.
"It's been inevitable," Salmon said this week. "It's nothing I've held close to me. The last nail in the coffin was when he signed his extension. At that point, it was like, all right, I relinquished the honor in my mind. ... It's a threshold that's nice to have, but at the same time, there's always someone coming to knock you off it.
"You knew it would have to be a hitter who had longevity with the Angels, and that's exactly what it's turned out to be in Mike Trout's case."
Salmon hit his 299th homer in the final days of his career. Trout has 10 years remaining on the historic contract he signed in March 2019.
By the end of the deal, the gulf between him and Salmon will likely be too wide to merit the mention of the franchise's first rookie of the year.
That's just fine by Salmon.
"I've ridden his coattails for way too long," Salmon said. "I've gotten way more publicity because of his successes. He's a first ballot Hall of Famer, and good for him. He's been exciting to watch."
