Music: {allcanada} Hutchison, Jays burned by Pujols, Angels

ANAHEIM, Calif. - The challenge for Drew Hutchison, Toronto Blue Jays manager John Farrell was saying before Sunday's series finale against the Los Angeles Angels, would be in handling hitters the third time through the batting order, once the opposition had a chance to see him and make adjustments.

Those words proved prophetic a few hours later when slumping slugger Albert Pujols adjusted after a fly-out and weak strikeout versus Hutchison, launching a two-run laser to left that ended his career-high home run drought of 110 at-bats, and propelled his team to a 4-3 victory.

"He's done that 446 times," Farrell lamented, "so that's not a surprise."

To that point the rookie Hutchison (1-1) had navigated his way nicely through 4.2 innings, having only been burned for a pair of runs on Mark Trumbo's RBI single off his wrist, and Alberto Callaspo's run-scoring base hit in the fourth.

Some better luck earlier in the frame -- when left-fielder Eric Thames didn't get the best read on Kendrys Morales' soft flare and failed to make a diving grab on it, or when Trumbo's comebacker took a funny bounce -- and he might have escaped unscathed.

"It just kind of kicked up on me and that's real frustrating because I should make that play," said Hutchison. "And if I'm not going to, get out of the way because it's going to be a double play because we were playing him up the middle there."

But there was far less nuance in the fifth, however, during his third time through the lineup. Mike Trout ripped a one-out double and after Maicer Izturis flew out to centre, Pujols put a month's worth of frustration into a hanging 2-2 slider to open up a 4-1 lead.

"Made a bad pitch, and bad pitches get hit," said Hutchison. "(The slider) was pretty effective today other than the one I hung. I was trying to bounce it in the dirt and I didn't execute it."

The pitch was the same one that induced Pujols' fly out in the first.

"The at-bat that I struck out, not putting any excuse, but I couldn't pick up the ball really good," said Pujols. "First at-bat was good. He threw me fastball, slider. And the second at-bat he was throwing cutters, curveball. And I couldn't pick up his pitch from the stretch.

"And then obviously by the third at-bat I was able to make the adjustment."

A crowd of 37,548 stood and applauded the US$240-million man, demanding a curtain call after booing him Friday and earlier Sunday, and didn't get one.

"I don't care about that," Pujols said of turning the boos to cheers. "If I could boo myself, I'd do it too. I know myself better than that. A-hundred-and-ten at-bats? When you get 600 at-bats, at the end, then you look at it and everybody's right where they want to be."

The Blue Jays (16-13) tried to rally from there, but instead were forced to settle for a split with the Angels (12-17) after getting back-to-back shutouts from Brandon Morrow and Henderson Alvarez to open the four-game set.

They pulled within 4-2 on Edwin Encarnacion's sacrifice fly against Jerome Williams (3-1) in the sixth, and scratched out another in the seventh on Kelly Johnson's RBI single.

But David Carpenter caught Jose Bautista looking on a borderline pitch to end that threat, while Adam Lind's leadoff walk in the eighth was wasted when Encarnacion popped up as pinch-runner Rajai Davis broke for second. Davis kept his head down the whole time and then with shortstop Erick Aybar blocking him from picking up the play, was easily doubled off.

"I thought something was up (the way Aybar was acting), then my next thing was to pick up the coach, unfortunately I wasn't able to (read) the signs very well, it just didn't work out in our favour," said Davis.

"My focus was to get closer to home, steal the base, honestly everything else went blank, I was focused on one thing, and I wasn't able to do that."

It was an ugly end to an ugly sequence, as Davis got a strong jump on the at-bat's first pitch, but had to turn back when Encarnacion tipped the ball on a tepid check swing.

"Ideally, in hindsight, sure, when he's got two very good jumps and we foul two balls off, one pretty much inadvertently the way he deflected it," Farrell said when asked if he would have liked to see Encarnacion take a pitch so Davis could run. "He's looking to get a pitch to make an impact with, but he couldn't hold up his swing enough and it didn't work out."

Scott Downs left the game after tweaking his left knee on J.P. Arencibia's one-out single, but LaTroy Hawkins snared Omar Vizquel's liner and doubled off pinch-runner Jeff Mathis to close things out for his first save.

The Blue Jays fell to 7-3 when scoring first, as Thames put them on the board with an RBI single in the second, all set up by an Arencibia pop fly that Aybar lost in the sun and allowed to fall for a single.

Vizquel, at 45 becoming the oldest player to start at shortstop in big-league history in taking over from the resting Yunel Escobar, singled in the fifth to put two-men on with none out but was stranded.

Hutchison allowed four runs on eight hits over 5.1 innings, striking out eight. The 21-year-old was strong for much his outing, but like his previous three big-league starts, got burned by a handful of bad pitches.

"There were some positives, which makes it frustrating. Obviously I didn't execute my pitch and that's ultimately what ended up coming back and getting me," said Hutchison, who didn't seem worried by his rough patch the third time through the lineup. "You make small adjustments, that's true anywhere against any hitters. Whenever I've executed my pitches I've been fine. That's what it's come down to."

NOTES: Kelly Johnson was back in the Blue Jays lineup after leaving Saturday's contest early with some soreness in his legs. "He has a history of some dehydration things that he has to maintain," said Farrell. "He was cramping up the day before and because of those cramps on Friday night, he felt a little bit sore coming into (Saturday) and it was kind of hanging around late in the game. When he got through that last at-bat we were going to get him off his feet." … Escobar was given a day off for the first time this season. "I think he was more than ready for a day down," explained Farrell. "He had been going at it every day, so, he knew the day was right for him."