ANAHEIM Oakland A’s starting pitcher Eric Surkamp didn’t have his best night on the mound, but he and his teammates battled and came out with a 7-4 win over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Friday night to take a 2-0 lead in the series.

 “It was huge for us to kind of have one of those where we get them and they punch us in the mouth and we come right back,” A’s center fielder Stephen Vogt said. “So it was a really good game for us to kind of have that back and forth come out on the winning end.”

 Vogt hit a home run on a line drive to center field in the first inning. The play, after review by the umpire, gave Oakland a 1-0 lead at Angel Stadium.

 Then the Angels’ Albert Pujols hit a home run on a fly ball to left field – tying Harmon Killebrew for 11th place on the all-time home run list, with 573. Mike Trout scored off the homer and the Angels took a 2-1 lead in the inning.

 Vogt said Surkamp “really calmed down” after Pujols hit the homer.

 “Obviously he would have liked to go longer we would have liked him to go longer but at the end of the day he started a game we won and he gave us chance to win and he battled,” Vogt said of Surkamp. “You know, he didn’t have his best stuff tonight and he battled and got some good hitters out on some quality pitches.”

 Trout reached on a throwing error by Surkamp, allowing Andrelton Simmons to score and the Angels to take a 3-1 lead in the second inning.

 Surkamp wasn’t happy about that.

 “I don’t know, for some reason I thought I was closer than I was and then I turned around and I couldn’t even tell you what happened,” he said. “I was pretty frustrated myself. You know, in that situation, just keeping another run off the board and you know it didn’t end up hurting us too bad, but those plays got to be made.”

 In the third inning, Oakland’s Billy Burns singled on a line drive to center fielder Trout and Marcus Semien scored, cutting the Angels’ lead to 3-2.

 But Trout singled on a line drive to right fielder Max Muncy and Shane Robinson scored, bringing the Angels up again 4-2 in the fourth inning.

 The A’s played catch up again in the fifth inning. Muncy grounded out but first baseman Yonder Alonso scored and Oakland trailed 4-3. Then Burns got out on a sacrifice fly to center fielder Trout, allowing Semien to score and tying the game at 4-4.

 The A’s Khamis Davis saved the day. He hit a home run on a line drive to left center field, and Vogt and Danny Valencia scored to put Oakland up 7-4 at the top of the eighth inning.

 “You look at his productivity numbers and he does his damage in a hurry,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said of Davis. “I mean he may go a few games without getting hits and then all of a sudden, he knocks in three runs at once and a lot of them are big.”

 With the victory Friday night, the A’s overstepped the Angels in standings, but have the third worst record in the American League and are the sixth worst in the majors.

 First pitch for game three of the series of four is at 7:04 p.m. Saturday at Angel Stadium.