(MLB.tv)

In becoming the youngest person in American League history and the sixth player ever from the Los Angeles Angels to hit for the cycle, Mike Trout required skill, preparation and timing to converge Tuesday night.

A favorable call by an umpire didn't hurt, either.

Trout hit a home run in the eighth inning to cap a historic night for himself, but it was his second at-bat against the Seattle Mariners — which resulted with an infield single — that got Trout's cycle started in the third inning. Only, a close look at one of the replay angles shows that Trout didn't beat lumbering pitcher Aaron Harang to the first-base bag after a grounder to Justin Smoak:

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Nate McLouth continued his career rebirth with the Baltimore Orioles, taking Vidal Nuno deep for a game-ending home run in a 3-2 victory against the New York Yankees to snap a six-game losing streak Tuesday night.

McLouth, an All-Star and Gold Glove winner with the Pirates in a breakthrough 2008 season, wandered around in decline during the following seasons until the Orioles picked him up as a free agent in June 2012. McLouth helped the surprising O's reach the playoffs, and has kept on helping in 2013 via a stat line of .277/.365/.423, with three homers and a league-leading 13 stolen bases coming into Tuesday. Make it four homers. After blowing three straight saves, Jim Johnson picked up the victory in relief and former Yankees outfielder Chris Dickerson hit two solo home runs.

Kung fu grip: After a killer triple by San Francisco's Gregor Blanco turned the tables on Washington in the ninth, slugger Pablo Sandoval turned the lights out in the 10th with his eighth home run, a mammoth shot to center, sending the Giants to an unlikely 4-2 victory. As Giants broadcaster Duane Kuiper said, "He put both cheeks into that one."

Walkoff this way:

(Getty)Running into that fence knocked some sense into Bryce Harper; he said doesn't want to do it again. There's only one problem: He still has to play the outfield. Harper found himself caught between making a catch and making sure of his own safety Tuesday night, and his indecision might have cost the Washington Nationals a ballgame.

With two outs in the ninth inning, Harper pulled up short in pursuit of a fly ball that fell in for a score-tying triple by Gregor Blanco. Closer Rafael Soriano had blown the save, and the San Francisco Giants won 4-2 in the 10th on a home run by Pablo Sandoval. A strong performance by Stephen Strasburg had meant nothing, the Nats fell to 23-23 on the season and the experience revealed that Harper has his confidence shaken.

Quoted by reporter Adam Kilgore in the Washington Post, Harper said:

“I don’t want to hit the frickin’ wall full-on,” Harper said. “Of course that crosses your mind after you jam into a wall. It doesn’t really feel very good. It [stinks] that I couldn’t make the play. I totally put that loss on me.”

Blanco's triple was an echo of another play Harper failed to make May 14, when he famously slammed face-first into the right-field fence at Dodger Stadium, dazing himself and needing 11 stitches to close a gash in his chin.

Many had wondered why Harper — who has displayed a sixth sense in other ways on the baseball field at age 20 — turned around so late after reaching the warning track, just before impact. A combination of inexperience and fearlessness was Harper's undoing. Well, now he has some experience. And he's afraid. It's a mental barrier Harper says he must overcome, or else.