ANAHEIM, Calif._The ball rifled off the bat of Albert Pujols at 104 mph and shot toward the gap in right-center field in the sixth inning Saturday night, easily clearing the wall for the 618th home run and 2,992nd hit of the Angels slugger's career.
Gone was a streak of 41 innings _ dating to an April 14 game in Kansas City _ in which the Angels failed to gain a lead. Gone three innings later was a brutal four-game losing streak, the Angels flushing two strings of futility down the drain in a 4-3 victory over the San Francisco Giants in Angel Stadium.
"That was a huge hit at the time," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "We haven't scored many runs, we haven't had many leads this week. There's no doubt that gave us a big lift."
Pujols' homer off Giants left-hander Derek Holland snapped a 2-2 tie and made a winner of Garrett Richards, who gave up two runs and five hits in six innings and matched a career high with 11 strikeouts, nine of them on sliders.
Jim Johnson retired the side in order with two strikeouts in the seventh. The Giants pulled to within 4-3 in the eighth on Andrew McCutchen's walk and Pablo Sandoval's run-scoring double off Blake Wood.
Brandon Belt was intentionally walked, and Scioscia summoned Keynan Middleton, who struck out Evan Longoria with a 97-mph fastball to douse the threat.
Middleton gave up an infield single to Mac Williamson to lead off the ninth before striking out Brandon Crawford with an 88-mph changeup, Nick Hundley with an 87-mph slider and getting Joe Panik to ground out for his fifth save.
The Giants' 17 strikeouts were the most in a nine-inning game since Aug. 31, 1959, when Dodgers left-hander Sandy Koufax struck out 18 in the Coliseum.
"The pen was a little shaky and we needed Keynan to clean up the eighth and finish the ninth," Scioscia said. "He came in in a tough situation. Longoria is as tough as they come. But he made good pitches and got out of it."
The Angels entered the week with a seven-game win streak and an explosive offense that led the major leagues in runs, hits, homers, average, on-base-plus-slugging percentage and hitting with runners in scoring position.
Then their bats suddenly went as cold as the freezing temperatures that forced the postponement of last Sunday's game in Kansas City.
In the first four games of a homestand against Boston and San Francisco, the Angels were outscored 35-4, out-hit 52-19 and out-homered 14-2, while batting .151 (19 for 126). With an 8.50 ERA during the skid, the Angels matched a franchise record by giving up eight or more runs in four straight games.
"You think you're going good, and all of a sudden it just stops," Angels center fielder Mike Trout said. "But this is a good team. We have great team chemistry, a winning mind-set. Good teams are gonna go through stretches like this. You just have to battle out of it, keep fighting and try to win a ballgame."
Richards, now 3-0 with a 3.46 ERA, set the tone with a quality start that began with a three-up, three-down first and hit a speed bump during a laborious 28-pitch second inning that included two wild pitches and Belt's two-run homer.
Sandoval struck out on a slider in the dirt but reached when the pitch bounced past catcher Rene Rivera. Richards' next pitch, a fastball, nicked the leaping Rivera's glove before traveling to the backstop for a wild pitch.
Belt hit a towering drive to right-center. Trout leaped and got his glove on the ball. The ball bounced off the heel of his glove and hit the wall above the yellow home-run line for a 2-0 Giants lead.
The Angels cut the lead in half in the bottom of the second when Jefry Marte, one of nine right-handed hitters in the lineup against Holland, crushed a two-out solo homer to left-center.
Trout pulled the Angels even with two outs in the third when he dug out a 79-mph curve just below the strike zone over the left-center-field wall for his AL-leading eighth homer in 21 games, putting him on a pace for a 62-homer season.
