Anaheim, Calif. — The moment wasn’t lost on him.
Standing in the right-handed batter’s box was Troy Melton’s favorite baseball player growing up. Melton was 11 when Mike Trout, just 19 himself, broke into the big leagues with the Angels. Melton, like the rest of the baseball world, was immediately captivated by the sheer force and intensity of Trout’s talent on a baseball field.
Melton and his buddies from nearby Canyon High School, made countless trips to Angels Stadium to watch him play.
So, flash ahead to Friday night. Melton, with some 70 family members and friends in the stadium, made his first start in his hometown ballpark and the second batter he faced, of course, was Trout.
“Pretty cool,” Melton said.
Melton never threw him a strike in that first at-bat. He didn’t throw a lot of strikes in that first inning. Trout jumped on a 2-0 cutter that was off the plate, low and away, and lined it 300 feet to center fielder Matt Vierling’s glove.
Trout led off the third inning and properly welcomed his young admirer home. Melton left a 1-0 splitter down but in the middle of the plate and Trout scorched it down the left field line for a double. The ball left his bat at 108 mph. It was the kind rocket that would have brought Melton out of his seat a few years ago.
Melton got one more crack at him. When Trout came around again in the fifth, Melton had fully settled in. This time, he commanded the inner edge of the strike zone. Trout took a cutter in for ball one, but Melton didn’t relent.
He got a borderline called strike on another cutter to even the count. The Angels had used up their two challenges by the third inning. The 1-1 pitch was sinker in, that Trout fouled off.
Melton walked behind the mound, caught his breath, and then punched out Trout with an elevated, 96.8 mph four-seamer.
“That was big for me,” Melton admitted. “He was my favorite player growing up. To strike him out, that was super cool.”
Melton, despite a 27-pitch first inning and a most uncharacteristic four walks, struck out nine and allowed just one run in 5.2 innings in what ended up being a dramatic, 2-1 Tigers’ win.
“You can come to games and not see Troy Melton walk four hitters in four weeks,” manager AJ Hinch said. “I don’t want to say it was because he was pitching in Anaheim because he can always control his emotions. But he didn’t have his best stuff and he still got us to the sixth inning.”
There was a lot going on for Melton in the first inning and part of it certainly was the adrenaline spike that comes with playing in your hometown stadium against the team you grew up rooting for.
“Definitely some of that,” Melton said. “But also having a few extra days between starts (with the All-Star break).”
Melton was throwing 99-mph bullets right out of the gate. But he was spraying the ball and a lot of his misses weren’t particularly close. He gave up an 0-2 single to Zach Neto and walked Nolan Schanuel and Jorge Soler to load the bases with one out.
But he limited the damage, getting two straight ground ball outs. The first, by Josh Lowe, plated the run.
There was another issue, too. He’d never thrown off the mound at Angels Stadium. Not in competition, anyway. He threw a bullpen for Angels scouts on that mound before the draft in 2022. He also hit there. His Canyon High School team was no-hit in a game at Angels Stadium and he made the final out.
But he had trouble Friday adjusting to the steeper mound.
“That’s what I’m kind of mad at myself for,” he said. “Every mound is different. This one is a little steeper. I didn’t make the adjustment — I guess not too late, but later than I would’ve liked.”
His raised adrenaline and the extra days of rest worked against him there, too.
“There was some adrenaline for sure, but with the time off, I felt better than normal,” he said. “And when you are moving fast, it’s kind of hard to make those adjustments as fast because there is just so much going on.”
After he walked Vaughn Grissom to start the second inning, he flipped a switch. He started to stay on his back leg a little longer before striding to the plate and his arm got back into its normal slot.
He struck out the next three hitters to end the second. He stuck out two more in the third to strand Trout at second. And he finished his outing punching out Soler and Lowe.
“I have to be better at adjusting quicker,” he said. “But I do think I got there in the end.”
Oh yeah. He ended up with 18 misses on 42 swings and 18 called strikes. With his four-seam and sinker, he got 10 whiffs on 20 swings. And he got swing-and-miss with five of his six pitches, including two with his little-used curveball.
Melton chuckled when he was asked about the unusually high whiff rate on his heaters.
“I was throwing them hard and they weren’t always strikes,” he said. “They had to guess a little bit with the cutter, sinker and four-seam. It was a product of me not being in the zone as much. But I don’t want to continue doing it that way.”
Melton, who lowered his ERA to 1.80 over nine starts with a 0.73 WHIP, handed Hinch the ball with two outs and nobody on in the sixth. He was at 94 pitches and the Tigers were still down by that one skinny first-inning run.
“That’s what I told him when I went out,” Hinch said. “I told him I thought it was impressive that it took this long for me to come get him, impressive that he stayed in the game that long and gave us a chance to win.”
Welcome home.
Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
Tigers at Angels
➤First pitch: 4:07 p.m. Angels Stadium
➤TV/Radio: Detroit Sports Net, 97.1, 107.9
SCOUTING REPORT
➤RHP Casey Mize (4-6, 2.79), Tigers: He fought his mechanics a bit in his last start before the break, walking two and allowing four runs (three earned) in 5.2 innings against a patient Phillies lineup that drove his pitch count up from the first inning on. But that was a rare blip on Mize’s season so far. If he had enough innings to qualify, he’d rank among the American League leaders in WHIP (0.996, third), ERA (fifth) and opponent average (.209, third).
➤RHP Ryan Johnson (1-4, 6.75), Angels: It’s not been a smooth ride for the 23-year-old. In 33 innings, he’s yielded nine homers and 13 walks with 25 strikeouts. Opponents are slugging .515 with an .857 OPS. He’s 6-6 with a funky, short-arm, nearly side-arm delivery (18 degrees). It looks like he’s running at the hitter when he delivers his pitches. He’s got a four-pitch mix: sinker (92 mph), cutter, splitters to lefties and sweepers to righties. He has a 31.8% chase rate but a low 24.6% whiff rate.
— Chris McCosky
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: ‘Super cool’: Troy Melton makes the most of his Anaheim homecoming
Reporting by Chris McCosky, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Chris McCosky, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
