Trout loses 14-pitch battle, then slugs game-winning HR

Baseball is a game of failure, but in the case of Mike Trout - the Los Angeles Angels star unbound by precedents of greatness and, seemingly, the laws of nature - it's, like, kind of not.

On Saturday, for instance, with his club playing host to the Seattle Mariners, Trout struck out in his first-inning at-bat against venerable right-hander Felix Hernandez, but it took the former Cy Young award winner 14 pitches to dispose of the two-time MVP - a failure, technically, for Trout, but a decidedly muted one.

Since 2008, by the way, there have only been 108 plate appearances of at least 14 pitches, according to Daren Willman of MLB.com, and Hernandez had to paint the inside black of the plate to retire Trout.

And, of course, six innings later it was Trout who delivered the game's decisive blow, smacking a tie-breaking, two-run bomb off right-hander Evan Scribner in the bottom of the seventh and propelling his club to a 5-3 victory - their second in a row - with his second home run of the young season.

(Video courtesy: MLB.com)

A week into the 2017 campaign, Trout is hitting .318/.360/1.133 with five extra-base hits. We're watching history every time this kid takes the field, folks.