ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Texas Rangers had an answer the first two times the Los Angeles Angels stuck their nose out in front of them Friday night. But not the third.

As Albert Pujols has done so many times since he began the second leg of his career with the Angels in 2012, he knocked in the game-winning runs of a 6-3 win at Globe Life Park with a no-doubt three-run homer off Rangers reliever Jeremy Jeffress.

It was Pujols' third homer of the season and the three RBIs vaulted him past Rafael Palmeiro and Ken Griffey Jr. into 15th on the major league career RBI list.

The Rangers (10-13) worked around Mike Trout, who homered in the sixth, with a walk to bring Pujols up with one out.

"He had hit the ball hard a couple times, and we were not going to give in there -- move on to Pujols," Rangers manager Jeff Bannister said.

The Angels made the Rangers pay. They scored all six runs via homers.

"Albert is going to be Albert," Trout said. "Big situations, he comes up clutch. He was aggressive that at-bat and got a good pitch to hit."

It came on the first pitch of the Jeffress-Pujols duel, and it came amid a bit of miscommunication between the reliever and catcher Johnathan Lucroy.

"I think I crossed him up," Jeffress said. "I thought I saw more fingers than one."

What was meant to be a sinker turned into a curveball left over the plate, and Pujols deposited it into left field.

Yunel Escobar crushed the first pitch of the game from Nick Martinez 438 feet into left-center field to give the Angels a 1-0 lead before most of the crowd of 28,968 had a chance to reach their seats.

Martinez settled down immediately after misplacing the curveball that Escobar displaced over the visiting bullpen, facing just one over the minimum number of hitters in the next four innings.

The Rangers responded with a hot start from the top of their lineup as well. Both left fielder Delino DeShields and shortstop Elvins Andrus singled sharply into center field to start the bottom of the first, but the threat was stymied somewhat when Andrus was put out at second on what would have been a wild pitch, had Angels catcher Martin Maldonado not stayed with the bouncer out to his left and fired a strike to second base for the inning's second out.

With DeShields on third, Rangers center fielder Carlos Gomez hit the team's first sacrifice fly of the season on a moon shot to shallow center field. Trout's throw home was cut off as DeShields came home to tie the score at 1-1.

Martinez struck out seven Angels through five innings, but the Rangers didn't really threaten again until the bottom of the fifth, when Ryan Rua doubled into the corner in left field with one out. Joey Gallo struck out and Lucroy flied out to right to end the inning.

"I thought Nick threw the ball well. He gave up that early first-pitch solo home run on a fastball," Bannister said. "Really after that, the curveball came into play to kind of keep these guys off of the fastball."

Rua's double was the Rangers' only extra-base hit off Angels starter Tyler Skaggs, who carried just a 1-4 record and a 4.44 ERA into the game. Skaggs left after five innings, giving up one earned run, with right side tightness.

The Rangers answered Trout's homer with another single from DeShields and a double from Andrus in the bottom of the sixth to bring Texas within 3-2. Mike Napoli, who came in Friday batting just .150, brought home Andrus to tie the score 3-3 on a single to left.

Protecting a three-run lead in the bottom of the ninth, Angels lefty reliever Jose Alvarez posted the first save of his career.

NOTES: Nick Martinez started for Texas in place of A.J. Griffin, who is recovering from inflammation in his left ankle. Griffin participated in a rehab start Friday at Triple-A Round Rock and threw 37 pitches with no additional trouble with the ankle. ... Angels OF Mike TroutTrout came into the game tied for sixth in the American League with six homers, but his two-run shot in the sixth inning tied him with the American League leaders coming into Friday, including Texas 3B Joey Gallo, at seven. ... Yunil Escobar's homer was his ninth career leadoff home run. ... Carlos Gomez's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the first was the Rangers' first sacrifice fly in 50 games dating to Sept. 2, 2016, when Nomar Mazara hit one against the Astros. ... Angels reliever Jose Alvarez posted his first career save in his 157th appearance. ... The 6-3 win over the Rangers fell on the five-year anniversary of Mike Trout's last call-up to the major leagues.