KOLE CALHOUN hit his 16th home run of the season in the Angels’ 10-7 win Tuesday over the Oakland A’s (Flickr/Keith Allison).

By Pete Zarustica

The lineup of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim has been ravaged this season by an almost-incredible string of injuries, the latest being Sunday’s loss to Matt Shoemaker for the remainder of the season to a line drive that struck him in the head.

Almost as incredible is how – despite all that and a much too late start – the Halos are roaring along with win after win. Monday’s 10-7 triumph over the A’s in Oakland was their 10th victory in 12 games and kept alive a slim hope of climbing as high as third place in the American League West.

The Orange County team jumped out to a 3-0 first inning lead and outslugged the A’s the rest of the way to improve its record to 62-75 in this Labor Day contest.

Kole Calhoun connected for his 16th home run of the season and Mike Trout went 3-for-4 and scored twice in the win to push his batting average to .325. He was also hit by a pitch. Albert Pujols had two hits and drove in two runs.

Jered Weaver had a rough start lasting only four innings, giving up four hits and five runs. He struck out four and walked three.

“He was a little sore and it started to affect him by the end of the fourth inning,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said, referring to the incident in which Weaver was hit in the hip by a batted ball.

The win went to Jose Valdez (1-1) and the save to Andrew Bailey, his second of the season.

Oakland was led by Danny Valencia and Kris Davis who each homered and accounted together for four hits and four RBIs.

The series in Oakland continues with Nicky Nolasco (5-12) making the start for the Angels on Tuesday.