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Mike Trout’s first big-league homer helps Angels thump Orioles

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The Angels promoted teen prospect Mike Trout to the major leagues three weeks ago to spell center fielder Peter Bourjos, who went on the disabled list with a tight hamstring. And now that Bourjos is healthy again no one is sure how long Trout will hang around.

But when -- or if -- he does go back to the minors he’ll have some fond memories to take with him.

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Sunday, for example, he belted his first big-league home run, a three-run shot in the the eighth inning, to spark the Angels to a 9-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles. Two days earlier he had his first two-hit game and first stolen base in the majors in another victory.

And he got to share it all with hundreds of family members and friends who made the two-hour drive from Millville, N.J., to see him play.

Trout’s blast Sunday also revived an Angel offense that had been struggling. Torii Hunter followed with a two-run homer of his own three batters later and, when Mark Trumbo added an RBI in the ninth, it marked the first time the Angels had scored as many as nine runs in a game in nearly three weeks.

Rookie right-hander Tyler Chatwood was the beneficiary of all that support, though he didn’t need much, allowing just two runs on six hits and walking none in seven innings to even his record at 6-6. The Angels opened the scoring in the third when Hunter drove a two-out double off the top of the center-field wall, then scored when Bobby Abreu squirted a ground-ball single through the right side of the infield.

Two walks, a sacrifice fly and a pair of doubles -- the second Maicer Izturis’ two-out line drive off first base Derrek Lee’s glove -- made it 3-0 an inning later.

Chatwood, meanwhile, was cruising, retiring eight Orioles in a row before Nick Markakis dropped a fly ball in front of Trout in left-center field for a single with two outs in the sixth. Adam Jones then belted a 2-1 pitch an estimated 446 feet off the batter’s eye in center field, giving him two homers and four runs batted in in his last two games and cutting the Angels’ lead to a run.

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But two innings later the Angels put the game away, with Trout and Hunter homering off reliever Mark Worrell.

Nick Markakis closed out the scoring for Baltimore with a home run leading off the ninth.

ALSO:

Angels hope to get out of Baltimore with a win

Angels waste chances in 3-2 loss to Baltimore Orioles

-- Kevin Baxter in Baltimore

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