Pujols Hits 30th HR, Angels Drop Toronto Into Wild-Card Tie

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Albert Pujols hit his 590th career home run and the Los Angeles Angels beat Toronto 6-1 Saturday night, dropping the Blue Jays into a tie for the top two AL wild-card spots.

The Blue Jays and Baltimore are even in the playoff race. Seattle, Detroit and Houston are all three games behind in the wild-card chase.

Pujols hit his 30th homer. He joined Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez as the only players to reach 30 home runs in at least 14 seasons.

Ricky Nolasco (6-15) tossed six shutout innings as the Angels ended a five-game losing streak.

Francisco Liriano (7-13) allowed four runs — two earned — in six innings.

Pujols, ninth on baseball's all-time home run list, hit a solo drive into the left-field seats in the second.

Mike Trout got two hits and his 90th RBI and Kole Calhoun had two hits and scored twice for the Angels. It was only the fourth time this month Los Angeles scored at least six runs in a game.

Edwin Encarnacion scored Toronto's run in the eighth on pinch hitter Melvin Upton Jr.'s sacrifice fly. The Blue Jays stranded 12 and were 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Blue Jays: Josh Donaldson returned to third base for the first time since in six days. Donaldson, who sat out the Blue Jays' three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays with an undisclosed hip injury, had previously been in the lineup against Los Angeles as a designated hitter.

Angels: RHP Garrett Richards threw off the mound for the first time since being tearing his his right ulnar collateral ligament on May 1. He threw 20 pitches in the bullpen and is confident that continued stem cell treatments will allow him to avoid Tommy John surgery and be healthy by spring training. ... C Jett Bandy left the game after the first inning with back spasms. He was replaced by Carlos Perez.

UP NEXT

Blue Jays: RHP Marcus Stroman (9-8, 4.55 ERA) gets the ball for the conclusion of the four-game series. He is trying to snap a streak of three straight losses. Stroman hasn't faced Los Angeles since 2014 but struggled in two appearances (one start), and is 0-0 with a 14.30 ERA.

Angels: RHP Alex Meyer will make his fourth big league start and his fifth big league appearance. Meyer is still looking for his first win (0-3, 8.18) and is coming off a rough outing against the Seattle Mariners, in which he struggled with his fastball command and was forced to throw more changeups than he was comfortable with.

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