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.
"Simba," he said, "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.
The blast, his 14th of the season and 299th of his career, lifted the three-time AL MVP to the top of the franchise leaderboard, where fellow Angels icon Tim Salmon had sat for more than a decade.
"It's been inevitable," Salmon said this past 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."
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.
"I've ridden his coattails for way too long," Salmon said. "I've gotten way more publicity because of his successes."
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