This game was exactly what Albert Pujols and the Angels needed to silence - at least temporarily - anyone who watched the season's first four games and had flashbacks to 2012.

"If you lose a few games everybody panics - obviously nobody in here does, but outside some of the fans might have been thinking about last April," Peter Bourjos said. "I don't think we're anything close to that."

Last season the Angels lost 14 of their first 20 while getting little offensive production from their stars, most notably Pujols. So it was certainly a relief for anyone in Angels red to see Pujols hit two homers and the Angels bang out 12 hits in an 8-4 victory over the Texas Rangers on Saturday afternoon.

"We hadn't swung the bats terrible, but we just weren't clicking on all cylinders and today we did," said Bourjos, who hit one of the Angels' four homers. "Everyone hit, top to bottom, and I think that's how it's going to be the majority of the year."

Pujols, who didn't hit homer No. 2 in 2012 until the Angels 38th game, matched that total by the sixth inning of the fifth game. His first-inning two-run homer was a 417-foot laser to straightaway center. In the sixth, he blasted one 397 feet to left.

He has 477 homers in his career, which moved him into 28th place on the all-time list, past Willie Stargell and Stan Musial.

Bourjos and Mark Trumbo, who didn't even hit a homer in spring training, each hit their first homers of the season. Trumbo's two-run opposite field homer into a stiff wind in the first put the Angels up 4-0.

The three intentional walks the Angels drew Saturday spoke volumes about two players.

Albert Pujols, whose bat is heating up, was the beneficiary of the walks. Josh Hamilton, who remains ice cold, was the player the Texas Rangers chose to face instead.

Hamilton ended up striking out on three pitches following two of the walks, and he hit a flyout after the third.

Before Saturday's game, there were only six hitters intentionally walked in front of Hamilton in his career.

"It was a smart move," Hamilton said. "Albert was dominating today, obviously. If I was in that situation I would have done the same thing. ... If this was somewhere else, the same thing would be going on, but the fact that it's here (is worse)."

At Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, fans have mercilessly booed Hamilton, their former star, throughout the first two games of the series. The fans have delighted in his misery at the plate. Hamilton is hitless in eight at-bats in the series, with four strikeouts.

In his first week with the Angels, Hamilton is 1 for 20 with 10 strikeouts.

"It'll get better," Hamilton said.

Pujols, who started slowly in his first year after signing a big contract with the Angels, cautioned anyone panicking over Hamilton's slow start.

"We're only five games into the season," Pujols said. "Let the guy settle down. We'll see a month from now. You talk about me last year and I proved a lot of people wrong."

Pujols was the third player since records are available, back to 1916, to have two home runs and three intentional walks in the same game. The last one was David Wright of the New York Mets on May 19, 2007.

It was the second game in Pujols' career in which he was intentionally walked three times, which places him on a list of just 12 players in history to have multiple games with three intentional passes. Coincidentally, one of the others is Mike Scioscia. Scioscia was hitting eighth one of those games and seventh, ahead of Bill Russell, in the other.

The Angels have had a player draw three intentional walks in a game six times. The last one was Garret Anderson in 2007.

Finally, Pujols has now had four multi-homer games at Rangers Ballpark in 18 games, including the World Series. He hit three homers in Game 3 of the 2011 World Series.

Tommy Hanson gave up three runs in six innings in his Angels debut, which Scioscia said was an exceptional performance considering the gusty wind.

"During batting practice, I don't know if we finished with any baseballs," Scioscia said. "It was flying. The ball was going out of every part of the yard. Under those conditions he kept his focus and pitched his game. He pitched a terrific game."

Hanson gave up two solo homers, but did not walk a batter.

"He commanded counts and got back into counts when he had to," Scioscia said. "He had a strong six innings."

Ryan Madson increased his work in the bullpen with a 20-pitch session at about 70-80 percent intensity, he said.

Madson said he is still feeling a "last little bit" of discomfort when he's loosening up to throw, but not once he gets loose.

"I'm not 100 percent," he said. "I'm not game speed, but I'm inching closer."

Ernesto Frieri pitched the ninth, even though the Angels had a five-run lead. Frieri had not pitched since Monday, and the Angels have an off day this Monday, so he will still be available for Sunday's series finale. Trainer Adam Navala came out to check on Frieri when he seemed to have trouble getting loose, but he remained in the game and struck out the last two hitters. ...

The Angels had 11 extra base hits in their first four games and seven on Saturday.

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