ANAHEIM, Calif. _ The Los Angeles Angels are on a roll, leading the major leagues in runs and batting with runners in scoring position in July, so why not give Jefry Marte, a 25-year-old rookie with a mere 187 at-bats on his big league resume, the green light with a 3-0 count, two on and one out in the first inning Wednesday night?
Marte got just the pitch he was looking for, a thigh-high, center-cut, 94-mph fastball from left-hander Martin Perez, and he didn't miss it, launching a three-run home run that traveled 455 feet to left-center field.
The blast capped a four-run rally and set the offensive tone on a night the Angels scored in each of the first four innings and extended their win streak to six with a 7-4 victory over the Texas Rangers in Angel Stadium.
"With runners on first and third, on a 3-0 count with a young player, we felt like if it was in the zone, he's going to put a good swing on it, make contact and get at least one run home," manager Mike Scioscia said.
"The downside of it is a young player sometimes expands the zone and makes an easy out on a 3-0 pitch that experience, being the teacher, says you shouldn't have swung at. But Jefry waited for a good pitch, he was patient, he got a fastball right there and hammered it."
The Angels, who have won 10 of 12 games after going 2-12 in their previous 14 games from June 20 to July 4, completed their second undefeated homestand of six games or more since 2004, the last coming when they swept three-game series from Texas and Minnesota in June 2014.
They also pulled to within 11 { games of the Rangers in the American League West, having shaved eight games off the division lead since the beginning of July. Texas has lost 12 of its last 15, primarily because of a rotation that has gone 1-11 with an 8.83 earned-run average in that span.
Starters Hector Santiago, Matt Shoemaker and Jered Weaver have pitched well for the Angels this month, but the offense has keyed the summer surge.
The Angels have scored a major league-high 110 runs in July, an average of 6.9 a game, and they're batting a major league-best .356 (57 for 160) with runners in scoring position after going three for eight in those situations Wednesday night.
Santiago wasn't as sharp Wednesday night as in his previous three starts, giving up three earned runs and five hits in five innings, striking out three, walking three and needing 100 pitches, 63 of which were strikes, to record 15 outs.
The left-hander, who improved to 8-4 with a 4.32 ERA, walked the bases loaded with two outs in the second but was saved by left fielder Todd Cunningham, who made an over-the-shoulder running catch of Jurickson Profar's drive on the warning track to end the inning.
Ian Desmond singled to open the third and scored on Adrian Beltre's triple to left, Cunningham smashing into the wall as the ball arrived. That snapped Santiago's streak of consecutive innings without allowing an earned run at 24, the third-longest in club history. Ryan Rua's sacrifice fly pulled Texas to within 5-2.
But Albert Pujols, who was cleared by doctors to play after taking a 92-mph fastball to the face Tuesday night, singled in the third, took third on Andrelton Simmons' double and scored on Perez's balk for a 6-2 lead.
Mitch Moreland hit a solo homer off Santiago in the fourth, but the Angels countered in the bottom of the fourth when Cunningham doubled to left-center and took third when Desmond bobbled the carom off the wall. Cunningham scored on Yunel Escobar's sacrifice fly for a 7-3 lead.
Pujols drove in the team's first run in the first, following Escobar's infield single and Mike Trout's walk with an RBI single, his 12th RBI in four games. Pujols also was aboard when Marte crushed his sixth homer of the season.
Relievers J.C. Ramirez, Joe Smith and Jose Alvarez each threw scoreless innings, but closer Huston Street gave up a solo homer to Desmond with two outs in the ninth.
Beltre doubled to right and Rua reached on an infield single, bringing the tying run to the plate, but Street got Rougned Odor to fly to left to end the game.
