Albert Pujols, Erick Aybar send Angels to seventh straight win, 8-1 over A’s

Nick Tropeano morphed into Nolan Ryan for 62/3 innings, Albert Pujols channeled his inner Chone Figgins, and the Angels on Tuesday continued to barrel their way toward the tape with a finishing kick that would make former Olympic gold-medalist Dave Wottle proud.

Tropeano racked up a career-high 11 strikeouts — more than double his previous high — while allowing one run and three hits, and Pujols, sore right foot and all, had three hits, three runs — and a stolen base — as the Angels manhandled the Oakland Athletics, 8-1, in Angel Stadium.

The Angels’ seventh straight win and 11th in 14 games moved them past Houston and into the second American League wild-card spot, a half-game ahead of the Astros, who lost at Seattle. It also kept the Angels two games behind Texas in the AL West with five to play, the last four against the Rangers in Arlington.

“We’ve treated this like it’s the last game of the season for the last two weeks,” Pujols said. “There’s no tomorrow.”

After a brutal 10-19 August, the Angels are 18-8 in September. Instead of wilting in the heat of a pennant race, they are thriving in it.

“The magnitude of these games makes us all focus on each pitch, each at-bat,” Johnny Giavotella said. “We all want to come through for the team, more so than any other time during the season, and it makes us play our best ball. The entire clubhouse feels how close we are to reaching the playoffs.”

Tropeano, acquired from Houston last winter, gave up a two-out double to Josh Reddick in the first inning and did not allow another hit until Max Muncy’s solo homer in the fifth. The right-hander struck out two in each of the first, second, third, fourth and sixth innings, most with well-placed curveballs and changeups.

“That’s definitely the best outing we’ve seen from Nick,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “He had good command of his fastball, was ahead of most counts and used all of his stuff. He was in command the whole way.”

Mike Trout and Pujols hit back-to-back two-out doubles for a run in the first, and David Murphy added an RBI single. Trout became the sixth player in baseball history to reach the 100-run mark four times prior to his age-24 season, joining Alex Rodriguez, Vada Pinson, Ted Williams, Buddy Lewis and Mel Ott.

Then Pujols, whose foot injury has relegated him to designated hitter since Sept. 5, went to work in the fourth. The slugger legged out an infield single to open the inning, a grounder that second baseman Brett Lawrie grabbed with a diving stop.

With pitcher Chris Bassitt paying no attention to him, Pujols got a five-step head start and stole second without a throw.

“Just timed him up,” Oakland catcher Stephen Vogt said of Pujols. “A veteran player, a Hall of Fame player, if he sees something, he’s going to go with it, and he took off early.”

After C.J. Cron struck out, the Angels had four straight two-out hits, David Freese’s RBI single, Carlos Perez’s single, Giavotella’s RBI double and Erick Aybar’s two-run triple for a 6-0 lead.

Pujols singled in the fifth and scored on Freese’s two-out RBI single to right to make it 7-1. The Angels had 14 hits in the game, scored seven of their runs with two outs and went six for 16 with runners in scoring position.

“I think it’s all on the offense,” Tropeano said. “Them giving me that cushion early gave me the confidence to attack hitters.”

The lopsided victory after three straight one-run wins provided a breather for the Angels, who hadn’t won a game by more than four runs since Sept. 6, and gave some overworked relievers a much-needed break.

“We just passed the baton,” Scioscia said. “Runs have been a little scarce for us, but it was a good night to keep the pressure on those guys.”

Up next

Right-hander Garrett Richards (15-11, 3.73 earned-run average) will oppose Oakland left-hander Barry Zito (0-0, 18.00) at Angel Stadium on Wednesday at 4 p.m. TV: FS West; Radio: 830.

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

Twitter: @MikeDiGiovanna