ANAHEIM, Calif. — The words that came out of George Springer’s mouth most when talking to reporters less than an hour after he limped off the field and remained in the dugout in pain after the final pitch were, “I’ll be alright.”

He didn’t look that way at first.

The Astros rookie right fielder strained his right hip flexor Wednesday night when he was picked off at first base for the second-to-last out of Angels starter Jered Weaver’s two-hitter, a 2-1 Astros loss.

Springer, who provided the Astros’ only run on a fourth-inning homer and made one of his usual circus catches in the second inning, acknowledged he was in pain — and it had nothing to do with the Weaver pitch that caught him in the rear to put him on base. But about 45 minutes after the game as the Astros prepared for a late-night flight to Seattle, Springer said the pain had lessened after icing.

Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow said that Springer did better than expected on a strength test shortly after the injury, and that an MRI was not planned.

“Just gave out on me, I’ll be alright,” Springer said. “Just went to go back to the bag and it just went. … They told me it’s up to me (what happens next), I’m going to come in and say if I can play or not. I want to play, so I’ll be good. I’ll take care of it.”

Springer said that he has experienced something similar in the past, and that his body would bounce back.

“I don’t think there’s anything that you would know right away,” manager Bo Porter said. “We’ll see how he feels tomorrow.”

Springer draws comparisons to Angels superstar Mike Trout, so Springer’s performance Wednesday seemed particularly eye-opening with Trout sidelined while nursing a hamstring injury. He and Jason Castro had the Astros’ only hits, and Springer tumbled after running a long way to snag a Hank Conger liner toward the right-center gap.

Weaver finished with five strikeouts and one walk and perhaps most impressive of all, needed just 94 pitches.

Meanwhile, Collin McHugh, Dallas Keuchel’s partner in the where-did-this-come-from category of Astros starting pitchers, had a great night that nearly kept him on pace with the dominant Weaver.

“You know coming into it, he’s arguably one of, if not the best pitcher in this league,” McHugh said. “You know that you’re not going to give up a lot, so going into it you just kind of know it’s going to be a dogfight. … He was tough tonight.”

The Albert Pujols and Weaver types, the big names with big contracts, are what separated these teams in the rubber match of a three-game series.

A 2-1 pitch from McHugh in the bottom of the sixth inning was a curve ball that got too much of the plate to Pujols, who crushed a shot to left that bounced back on to the field for the 505th home run of his career. That broke a tie at 1.

“It was a hanging slider, it was supposed to be away,” McHugh said. “Right down the middle.

Pujols has 13 home runs on the season, and was already hot entering the day, with hits in six of his previous 12 at-bats.

Pujols is tied with Aramis Ramirez for the most home runs against the Astros among active players, with 43. The all-time record for homers against the ‘Stros is 46, held by Hank Aaron, and Pujols seems sure to break that.

Before the game, Porter was asked if he knew the last time the Astros had won three straight series. His answer: “Today.” His team came close to proving him right, but the actual answer remains August of 2010. The Astros had won two straight series before arriving in Anaheim.

“If you can feel good about a loss — which as competitors, it’s really hard to — I think we did some good things,” McHugh said. “We can take that and move into the next series, hopefully go into Seattle play really well, take a couple games, take a series and see what happens from there.”

McHugh’s outing was valiant: seven innings, four hits, two runs, seven strikeouts and two walks. He threw 75 of 112 pitches for strikes, including his final pitch of the night, a strikeout looking of Efren Navarro to end the seventh. McHugh garnered 10 swings and misses in all.

An Erick Aybar single in the bottom of the third inning put the Angels ahead 1-0 before Springer answered in the top of the fourth, with a shot to left-center field that went over the 390-foot sign. Springer said he didn’t know it would get out.

“I was just trying to hit something hard, start a little something and was able to hit it hard off of him and he obviously threw the ball extremely well tonight,” Springer said.

Springer also believed that, had his hip not given out, he wouldn’t have been picked off at first base, despite what he thought might be Weaver’s best pickoff move.

He felt good enough after the game to be cheeky. Asked if he was going to try to steal second, he answered, “Maybe.”