Angels rediscover their offense

The Angels scored as many runs in the fifth and sixth innings against the Oakland Athletics on Thursday night as they did in their previous four games combined. They had more hits with runners in scoring position (six) in the game than they totaled in their previous eight games (five).

The floodgates didn’t open -- the Angels didn’t come close to their season highs for runs and hits -- but the offense definitely flowed more freely in an 8-3 victory in the opener of a crucial four-game series against the American League West-leading A’s at the Oakland Coliseum.

Albert Pujols had three hits and two runs batted in, and J.B. Shuck had two hits and scored three runs to lead a 12-hit attack that produced a four-run fifth inning and a three-run sixth for the Angels, who moved to within 10 games of Oakland.

The Angels scored 19 runs in the previous nine games. They were six for 11 with runners in scoring position Thursday after going five for 55 in those situations in the previous eight games.

“We had a great approach with runners in scoring position,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “We’ve been setting the table; we just haven’t cashed in the way we need to. Tonight, we did. We showed enough patience to get into some good counts.”

The beneficiary of the breakout night was C.J. Wilson, who gave up three runs and five hits in seven innings to improve to 11-6 on the season and 7-1 with a 1.96 ERA in his last eight starts.

The left-hander wasn’t as sharp as he was Saturday in Anaheim, when he blanked the A’s on three hits for 81/3 innings; he needed a season-high 123 pitches and walked three while striking out six.

“But he stuck it out and gave us seven strong innings,” Scioscia said. “It was a grind for him. He wasn’t as locked in tonight. It showed up in his pitch count, his ball-strike ratio and first-pitch strikes. He had to work harder for outs tonight.”

Likewise, the Angels didn’t crush the ball offensively. There was only one extra-base hit, Mark Trumbo’s two-run double to cap the fifth. But there was plenty of execution and clutch hitting.

Shuck’s hit-and-run single to center in the fifth put runners on first and third for Mike Trout, who hit a sacrifice fly to make it 2-2. Pujols singled, and Josh Hamilton, who missed the previous three games because of a stiff right ankle, singled for a 3-2 lead. Trumbo’s double to left-center made it 5-2.

After Hank Conger and Erick Aybar opened the sixth with singles, Shuck beat out a perfectly placed sacrifice bunt attempt for a single to load the bases. Conger scored on wild pitch, and Trout and Pujols hit run-scoring singles for an 8-2 lead.

Pujols, who hit a two-out, run-scoring single in the third, is 11 for 29 since the All-Star break, raising his average from .249 to .259.

“The big thing for us, when you look at the way we broke the game open, was execution,” Wilson said. “We had the hit-and-run single, got a bunt down, scored on a wild pitch, had a sacrifice fly. ... We scored a lot of runs without a home run, and that’s a good thing to get our mojo going.”

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com