CLEVELAND — A day off did nothing to cool off Mike Trout.

The Angels slugger did not play on Sunday, despite hitting home runs in his previous six games, but when he got back into action on Monday, the streak continued.

Trout’s two-run homer in the Angels’ 5-4 loss to the Cleveland Guardians pulled him within one game of the major league record of eight straight games with a homer.

“I feel like I’m getting some good pitches to hit, and putting good swings on them, and they’re going out,” Trout said.

Trout’s fifth-inning homer tied the score, but the Angels lost after Aaron Loup gave up a run on Amed Rosario’s double down the left-field line in the seventh.

The Angels are now 3-4 in the seven games in which Trout has homered, which is a fitting bit of disappointment for an organization that has been defined by team failure amid individual greatness.

Trout is now one game from equaling the record that Dale Long first achieved with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1956. Don Mattingly equaled it with the New York Yankees in 1987 and Ken Griffey Jr. did it with the Seattle Mariners in 1993.

“That’s good company to be in,” Trout said. “I’m going to come here tomorrow, take the same approach, get a good pitch to hit and put a good swing on it.”

Trout will face right-hander Cody Morris on Tuesday. The 25-year-old Morris will be pitching in his third major league game.

The three-time American League MVP belted a first-pitch fastball from left-hander Konnor Pilkington into the trees beyond the center field fence in the fifth inning, a 422-foot shot that was his 35th homer of the season. The two-run homer also tied the score, 4-4.

That erased the last two runs of the four-run deficit the Angels faced after the second inning.

Reid Detmers gave up four hits and he hit a batter in the nightmare inning. Detmers was able to bounce back, though. He allowed just two hits and two walks – one intentional – over the rest of his outing.

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“I felt good all night,” Detmers said. “The slider just wasn’t there in the second. They were getting some soft hits, hard hits, a little of everything. Everything was going their way that inning. But I felt good the rest of the innings. The slider was good, the changeup was there.”

Loup followed Detmers to the mound and got out of the sixth, but in the seventh he gave up a leadoff single to Stephen Kwan and then Rosario’s run-scoring double.

A little after that, there was a strange sequence in which both managers were ejected.

Ryan Tepera’s 1-and-0 pitch to Andres Gimenez was in the dirt, and Guardians manager Terry Francona wanted umpires to review it to see if the pitch hit him. Umpires didn’t see Francona asking for the review in the 30 seconds allotted to ask for a review, so they didn’t allow it. Francona then argued and got ejected.

After that, Tepera asked plate umpire Ron Kulpa if he could throw a couple of warm-up pitches because he’d been standing for a few minutes during the argument. Kulpa wouldn’t allow it, and that brought Angels manager Phil Nevin out to defend his pitcher. Nevin was then ejected. Tepera said Kulpa apologized to him between innings.

Here it is. The seventh straight game in which Mike Trout has hit a HR. His 35th of the season. pic.twitter.com/YIu6c2jHjc

— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) September 12, 2022

9/4: HR
9/5: HR
9/6: HR
9/7: HR
9/9: HR
9/10: HR
9/12: HR

Just a week in the life of @MikeTrout. #ULTRAMoment pic.twitter.com/YhWHJS2Z7l

— MLB (@MLB) September 13, 2022