ANAHEIM -- Unlike his previous start last week, after which a frustrated Lance McCullers Jr. said he wasn’t where he needed to be and joked he might as well throw left-handed, the veteran right-hander was in a much better frame of mind following his outing in Friday night's 4-2 win over the Angels at Angel Stadium.

Making his fourth start of the season after returning from a forearm injury, McCullers picked up his second win by holding the Angels to two runs in 5 2/3 innings while pitching around four walks and six hits with seven strikeouts. He has a 2.08 ERA with 14 walks allowed and 20 strikeouts in 21 2/3 innings this year.

"He worked exceptionally hard," Astros manager Dusty Baker said. "Lance loves to pitch and he knows how to pitch. So yeah, we’re very satisfied with where he is at this point."

The Astros pushed McCullers a bit harder on Friday, taking him to a season-high 97 pitches. He was at 80 pitches through five scoreless innings, but couldn’t overcome a leadoff single to Taylor Ward through an open hole on the right side of the infield in the sixth and a walk to Mike Ford. Matt Duffy followed with an RBI double.

"I’d like to finish it up there in the sixth," McCullers said. "Other than the ball Duffy hit, there’s not a lot of hard contact tonight. I was in command. I flashed some really plus-plus stuff the mid-innings there and hopefully that continues to carry forth. I think overall I was sharper with my stuff today. That was good to see."

Martín Maldonado, who’s been behind the plate for all four of McCullers’ starts, has noticed improvement along the way -- maybe more so than McCullers even knows. 

“Everyone wants to get better, but he is closer than what he thinks,” Maldonado said.

McCullers relied heavily on his sinker early in the game -- throwing it for each of his first six pitches -- and went heavy curveball toward the end. Eleven of his final 14 pitches were curves. In all, he threw 39 curves, which accounted for 40% of his workload, and only 20 sinkers (21%). The slider (16 pitches) and cutter (13 pitches) were relied upon, as well.

"Overall to the righties, I threw a fair amount of sinkers, to the lefties a lot of cutters," he said. "I was feeling really good with the cutters. It’s performed well. It’s been getting a lot of awkward swings, a lot of weak contact. That’s a pitch I've been attacking the lefties with."

McCullers said he found better sinker command later in the night, placing the pitch on the outer half of the plate a few times.

"I haven’t been super sharp and have been putting too many guys on base," McCullers said of his previous starts back off the injured list. "Not really tonight. A couple of guys that got on that I walked, I take those walks to [Mike] Trout, [Shohei] Ohtani. I think if this is me with my stuff not crisp, I’m happy with it. I’m not happy with the final lines and things like that, but for what I’m bringing to the table right now, it’s solid. I’ve been getting better and will continue to do that, and when I do it will click."

As far as his velocity is concerned, McCullers threw a 94.6 mph fastball to Ward in the sixth inning that was his fastest pitch of the night. His sinker velocity of 92.2 mph was down from his season average of 93.3 coming into the game, but it was more than enough.

"Obviously, I’m not like 100% to the sharpest level I would like, but I think I’m making strides every game and I was really close to six shutty [six shutout innings] there," he said. "I just feel like a couple of better executed pitchers to the first couple of hitters, I probably get out of [the sixth]. … Overall I've been keeping guys from crossing the plate for the most part. The other stuff will come, and when it does it will be damn good."