HOUSTON — Because one of baseball’s great traditions is overreacting to things that happen on Opening Day …

Mike Trout is back.

Trout hit a home run, stole a base and drew three walks, helping the Angels to a 3-0 victory over the Houston Astros on Thursday afternoon.

“I felt like myself again out there,” Trout said. “Being in center. Stealing bags. It was a fun win.”

Trout’s seventh-inning blast — a 409-foot shot over the train tracks above the left field seats — came just in time to get a victory for José Soriano, who worked six innings.

Relievers Walbert Ureña, Chase Silseth, Drew Pomeranz and Jordan Romano then handled the final three innings to lock up the Angels’ second Opening Day victory in the last 13 years.

“It’s a good feeling,” said Kurt Suzuki, speaking just before players celebrated the first managerial victory of his career the way they would celebrate a pitcher’s first victory. “Obviously all the work that each and every one of us put in in spring training leading up to this moment, it’s just game one, but still a special moment. You never forget that first one. Definitely a good team win.”

The Angels were able to start off the season on a high note in part because of Trout, who has been drifting farther and farther from being the guy who won three American League MVP awards before he turned 30.

Now 34, Trout had become a shell of himself in recent seasons, mostly because of injuries. This spring, though, he said he felt good physically and at the plate, and he was further boosted by the comfort of returning to center field.

“Mikey’s having a good time,” Suzuki said. “He’s enjoying himself. He’s working his butt off and he’s ready to play. I’ve been saying it all spring and Game 1 it showed. I’m happy for him.”

With his first-inning stolen base, he was halfway to his total from the 130 games he played last season. His most stolen bases since 2020 is six, in 2024.

If one game is enough to give fans hope about Trout, it should also give them some confidence about Soriano after his inconsistent 2025 season.

Soriano struck out seven and walked four (one intentionally). Soriano cracked 100 mph five times and averaged 98 mph, which was slightly up from last season. He got 16 whiffs, which was tied for the fourth most of his career.

“He was being aggressive,” Suzuki said. “He was attacking the zone. He was executing his off-speed pitches, keeping them off balance. Logan (O’Hoppe), I thought, did a phenomenal job with Sori and all the pitchers, keeping the hitters off balance. That’s a great team over there, you know, that’s a great team. So, you know, what what the pitchers did today was, was pretty special.”

Soriano looked like he was about to give up a run on his fourth pitch of the game, when slugger Yordan Alvarez crushed a high drive that clipped one of the beams supporting the roof of Daikin Park. The ball bounced into the stands in foul territory. The Astros argued that the ball hit the roof in fair territory, which would make it a homer. The umpires reviewed the call, and it was confirmed by video.

“Thank God they called it foul,” Soriano said. “After that I kept working and got a good result.”

Soriano then struck out Alvarez.

He cruised for most of the day, except for a third-inning jam that was the result of two walks sandwiched around an intentional walk. Soriano got Carlos Correa on a routine fly ball to left field to escape the inning. After that, Soriano had little trouble for his final three innings, as he waited for the Angels to get on the scoreboard.

Trout’s homer in the seventh was followed by an Oswald Peraza two-out RBI single in the eighth and a Nolan Schanuel homer in the ninth.

The bullpen closed it out, including a dicey seventh.

Suzuki called on Walbert Ureña for his major league debut, with a 1-0 lead. He gave up a double on his first pitch. After a strikeout, a groundout and a walk, Ureña was pulled with Alvarez coming to the plate.

Silseth threw him one pitch, and Alvarez grounded weakly to second.

O’Hoppe said he was unsure what pitch to call, but Suzuki nudged him toward Silseth’s best pitch, which is a splitter, and it got the job done.

“That was a pretty cool moment, for sure,” O’Hoppe said.

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