Trout out a second game with back stiffness

OAKLAND -- Back stiffness forced Mike Trout to miss his second straight game Sunday afternoon.

Trout woke up with the stiffness around the middle of his back Saturday morning, got scratched from the lineup after originally being slated to start at designated hitter, was laid up on the athletic trainer's table as the Angels went about an 11-3 loss and didn't feel quite good enough to play in the finale against the A's on Sunday morning.

Trout said the back is "a lot better than yesterday," but "I still feel a little bit in there."

"It [stinks]," Trout said about missing two games against the first-place team in the American League West. "I want to be out there. I just want to get it better."

Trout was hooked up to a handheld electrical stimulation machine pregame, and Angels manager Mike Scioscia was hopeful that he could be available to him off the bench -- though the situation ultimately never came up.

"If he can swing the bat, to start at DH, we would've considered it," Scioscia said before the Angels' 6-3 loss. "But right now, it's a little bit too stiff to do that four or five times. We'll see if he's got one [at-bat] in him. If not, hopefully he'll be ready on Tuesday."

Trout -- batting .294/.380/.549 with 11 homers and an AL-leading 63 strikeouts -- has now been out of the Angels' lineup three times, also missing the May 21 game against the Astros out of precaution over a tight left hamstring. The Angels have an off-day Monday before starting a three-game series in Houston, and Trout isn't concerned about the back issue lingering.

"It definitely feels better than yesterday," he said. "But it's still there. I don't want it to get worse."