Mike Trout homered, walked three times and stole a base, and Jose Soriano struck out seven over six shutout innings to lead the visiting Los Angeles Angels to a 3-0 victory over the Houston Astros on Thursday afternoon in the season opener for both teams.
It was the 405th career home run for Trout, a three-time American League MVP who was making his club-record 14th Opening Day start in center field. Soriano (1-0) allowed two hits and walked four as Los Angeles picked up its first road victory on Opening Day since April 1, 2013 at Cincinnati in Kurt Suzuki’s major league managerial debut.
Nolan Schanuel also homered, Jo Adell reached base four times with a pair of singles, a walk and a hit by a pitch and scored a run, and Logan O’Hoppe also had two hits for Los Angeles. Jordan Romano pitched a scoreless ninth to pick up a save.
AJ Blubaugh (0-1) took the loss, allowing one run on two hits over 2 1/3 innings while striking out three. Astros starter Hunter Brown scattered four singles and struck out nine over 4 2/3 shutout innings. He walked four and departed after throwing 102 pitches, 59 for strikes.
Joey Loperfido doubled and had two hits and Christian Walker also doubled for Houston.
Houston nearly took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Yordan Alvarez hit a towering fly ball down the right-field line that hit a beam in the roof and landed in the stands in foul territory. A crew chief review upheld a call that the ball would have landed in foul territory.
The Astros loaded the bases on three walks with two outs in the third but Soriano rebounded to get Carlos Correa to line out near the track in left to get out of the jam.
Los Angeles loaded the bases in the fourth with three singles, the final one a two-out infield chopper to third by O’Hoppe to load the bases. But Brown bounced back to get Oswald Peraza to ground to second to end the threat.
The Angels then took a 1-0 lead in the seventh when Trout drilled a 0-1 fastball by AJ Blubaugh 403-feet over the Crawford Boxes in left and onto the train tracks. It was the fifth Opening Day home run of his career, extending his franchise record.
Los Angeles picked up an insurance run in the eighth off reliever Bryan King. Adell was hit by a pitch, advanced one out later on a single by O’Hoppe and then scored on a soft single to left by Peraza.
Schanuel made it 3-0 in the ninth when he lined a home run to right off Christian Roa.
