Pujols and Angels get a scare in win over Rangers

The batting average, on-base and slugging percentages are nowhere near what he posted during his 11-year career in St. Louis, but Albert Pujols left no doubt Tuesday night that he is still capable of driving the ball out of the park.

Pujols crushed a pair of three-run home runs in an 8-6 victory over the Texas Rangers in Angel Stadium, giving the 36-year-old slugger two multi-homer games in three days and 54 in his career.

Pujols’ 18th and 19th homers of the season gave him 579 homers in his career, four shy of Mark McGwire for 10th place on baseball’s all-time list, and pushed the Angels to their fifth straight win and ninth win in 11 games.

The Angels, 191/2 games behind Texas at the beginning of July, now trail by 121/2.

Pujols and the Angels got a scare in the seventh when a 92-mph fastball from Rangers reliever Tony Barnette hit both the brim of Pujols’ helmet and his face. Pujols went down to one knee while Barnette rushed to check on him. Pujols got up, and took first base, where he smiled as he was checked by a trainer.

“I’m good,” Pujols said afterward. “Any time you get hit in the head it’s a little scary, but it’s part of the game. I’m lucky. It could have been worse.”

There were no hard feelings between Pujols and Barnette, who met after the game.

“He apologized three times, actually,” Pujols said of Barnette. “I’m pretty sure that’s the last thing he wants to do on a 1-2 count. I told him it’s baseball, it happens, just thank God I was OK.”

The Pujols homers, which both came with Kole Calhoun and Mike Trout aboard, erased deficits in the fourth and fifth innings and gave him 71 runs batted in on the season, putting him on a pace for 122.

“He’s quietly having another incredible season,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “You look at the production numbers, it’s what you’d expect. And more importantly, he’s getting Mike pitches to hit.”

Trout got Pujols a pitch to hit in the fifth inning Tuesday night. After Calhoun hit a one-out triple, the Rangers walked Trout intentionally to face Pujols, who belted a three-run homer to left-center off starter Kyle Lohse for a 7-5 lead.

“I don’t think it’s disrespect,” Pujols said. “If I was the manager, I’d have done the same thing. Trout is one of the best players in the game. In that situation, they’re looking for a double-play grounder.”

Pujols followed a Calhoun walk and Trout double with a three-run homer to left in the fourth that tied it at 3-3. Andrelton Simmons walked, took third on Ji-Man Choi’s single and scored on Jett Bandy’s sacrifice fly to center for a 4-3 lead.

Angels starter Tim Lincecum was roughed up for five runs — three earned — and nine hits in five innings but escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the first and a first-and-third, no-out jam in the third. He gave up a solo homer to Robinson Chirinos in the second and a two-run shot to Chirinos in the fourth.

Joe Smith, Cam Bedrosian and Huston Street pitched scoreless relief innings, Street ending the team’s 28-game streak without a save dating to June 14. It was the second-longest stretch without a save in club history. The Angels went 48 games without a save in 1972.

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

Twitter: @MikeDiGiovanna

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