Trout’s sock covers up King’s big feat

ANAHEIM — Hector Santiago provided another solid start and Mike Trout went deep, helping the Angels beat the division-rival Mariners and ace Felix Hernandez, 4-2, in Southern California on Saturday night.

Trailing by a run in the sixth and struggling once again to muster offense, Trout gave his team a lift with a two-run homer to straightaway center field. The ball sailed into the lawn and landed a projected distance of 435 feet away from home, according to Statcast™, good for Trout’s team-leading third home run.

Santiago limited the Mariners to a Leonys Martin sac fly in the second and a Nelson Cruz solo home run in the sixth, dropping his ERA to 2.70. The 28-year-old left-hander scattered four hits, walked two and struck out seven in six innings, then turned the game over to his bullpen, which kept Seattle scoreless through the last three frames.

Trout helped that cause with his throwing arm, playing an Adam Lind line drive perfectly off the center-field wall and gunning him down at second base in the seventh inning. The Angels then picked up a key insurance run in the eighth on a two-out, opposite-field single by Kole Calhoun.

MOMENTS THAT MATTEREDDethroning the King: Trout’s sixth-inning home run was merely the continuation of his unfathomable dominance against one of the game’s premier pitchers. It was his fifth time going deep against Hernandez, more than he has against any pitcher. Only Mark Teixeira (six) has more home runs vs. King Felix. Trout is batting .368 (25-for-68) against him.

The King passes Big Unit: Hernandez wasted no time breaking Randy Johnson’s franchise record for strikeouts for the Mariners as he whiffed Rafael Ortega — …

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