RECAP: Pujols hits 25th HR, Angels finish sweep of Rangers
Albert Pujols hit his AL-leading 25th home run, Kole Calhoun homered and drove in four runs and the Los Angeles Angels finished a dominant three-game sweep of the Texas Rangers with a 12-6 victory Sunday night.
Mike Trout celebrated his third straight starting nod for the AL All-Stars with one of seven run-scoring singles or sacrifice flies for the Angels in the first three innings.
Calhoun's three-run shot, his ninth, gave Los Angeles a 12-1 lead in the fifth, and a 25-1 advantage combined in the first five innings of the three games.
C.J. Wilson (7-6) allowed three runs in six innings, and the Los Angeles left-hander beat his former team for the second time in 10 starts.
Texas righty Colby Lewis (8-4) allowed 12 hits and 10 earned runs in four innings.
One night after getting a career-high six RBIs, C.J. Cron matched his career best with four hits, including a run-scoring double. His previous best for hits was also against the Rangers earlier this year. He's hitting .529 (18 of 34) against Texas and .135 against the rest of the league.
Pujols, Calhoun and Johnny Giavotella had two hits apiece for the Angels, who outscored the Rangers 33-8 in the series.
Pujols, who had a solo homer in the fourth and is a strong candidate to replace the injured Miguel Cabrera of Detroit at first base in the All-Star game, had two RBIs along with Giavotella.
The only hit off Wilson through four innings was Prince Fielder's 13th home run in the first.
Lewis, Wilson's teammate for both of Texas' World Series teams in 2010-11, couldn't keep the Angels off the bases while dropping his sixth straight start against them.
Seven of the first nine Los Angeles hitters reached, and all the Angels had been on at least once with no outs in the third inning after David Freese's hard ground-ball single off Texas third baseman Adrian Beltre's glove.
The Angels had at least 15 hits -- their season high coming into the series -- in all three games.
The Rangers got to Wilson with five hits combined in the fifth and sixth, but are hitting just .190 against lefties since June 1. They went into the game with the worst average in the majors against left-handers in that span. Texas had nine of its 11 hits after trailing 12-1.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Another #AllStarGame, another start for #Angels star #miketrout ... .congrats Trouty! http://t.co/cDyYEMGCZc #MLB pic.twitter.com/tn7UZJFlSY
— FOX Sports West (@FoxSportsWest) July 5, 2015
Angels: OF Collin Cowgill, out since late May with a sprained right wrist, will be shut down for at least another week. Manager Mike Scioscia said there wasn't any change in the nature of the injury.
Rangers: OF Josh Hamilton was out of the lineup with what manager Jeff Banister said was a mild groin issue. Banister said the disabled list wasn't a consideration yet for Hamilton, who missed a month with a strained left hamstring before coming off the DL on Tuesday.
UP NEXT:
Angels: LHP Andrew Heaney (1-0) starts the opener of a two-game interleague series at Colorado after getting his first major league win in his previous outing against the Yankees.
Rangers: RHP Yovani Gallardo takes a scoreless streak of 29 1/3 innings, longest in the majors this season, into the opener of a two-game interleague series at home against Arizona.
