(AP) — One day after receiving his 2014 AL MVP award in a home plate ceremony, Mike Trout gave another example of why he means so much to the Los Angeles Angels with a tying two-run homer in the seventh inning against Texas Rangers reliever Anthony Bass. The Angels then took the lead in the eighth on Johnny Giavotella's bases-loaded RBI single, but Joe Smith blew the lead in the ninth, Jose Alvarez gave up two more in the 11th, and the Angels lost 5-4 on Sunday. Aybar hit an RBI single in the bottom half, but the Angels' rally fell short as Rangers closer Neftali Feliz (1-1) threw a called third strike past Grant Green to end it. Over the Angels' last six games, their starting pitchers have allowed just six earned runs in 36 innings despite giving up 30 hits and 17 walks. Texas' Nick Martinez scattered seven hits over six scoreless innings and escaped a bases-loaded jam in the third. Before a herniated disc in his neck last year limited Prince Fielder to 42 games in his first season with the Rangers, he had missed only one of a combined 875 regular-season games by the Brewers and Tigers — and that was because of flu-like symptoms. The only other time Garrardo faced the Mariners in the regular season during his nine-year career was on April 17, when he pitched six scoreless innings in a 3-1 win at Safeco Field.