Albert Pujols and Bobby Wilson homered, and Mike Trout scored a run in his 14th consecutive game to set an AL rookie record, leading the Los Angeles Angels to a 7-4 victory over the Texas Rangers on Sunday night to win the three-game series.
Dan Haren pitched effectively in his first start off the disabled list for the Angels, while the two-time defending AL champion Rangers ended their road trip 4-4 and their lead over the Angels in the AL West was reduced to five games. The teams play each other 10 more times during the regular season, including a four-game series at Texas beginning July 30.
Haren (7-8) threw 95 pitches over six innings, allowing two runs, three hits and three walks while striking out three.
The three-time All-Star, whose streak of 254 consecutive starts ended because of tightness in his lower back after his outing on July 3, had to contort himself to get out of the way of a vicious line-drive single by Michael Young that buzzed past his head with one out in the fourth.
Three pitches later, Nelson Cruz drove his 12th homer halfway up the batter's eye in center field to cut Texas' deficit to 3-2. It was Cruz's first homer on the road since June 3 at Angel Stadium, when he hit a mammoth two-run shot to left-center against reliever Bobby Cassevah that was estimated at 484 feet and reached the championship flagpoles on the fly.
