Stiff back sidelines Trout against Oakland

OAKLAND -- Angels center fielder Mike Trout woke up Saturday morning with tightness around the middle of his back. He tried to loosen it up throughout the early afternoon at O.co Coliseum and never could, ultimately getting scratched from the starting lineup and missing his second game of the season.

Trout said he'll come into Sunday's 1:05 p.m. PT series finale against the A's "looking to play." Asked after Saturday's 11-3 loss if he's confident he can, Trout responded: "Oh yeah. It's night and day from what it was."

Angels manager Mike Scioscia originally had Trout in at designated hitter, then took him out entirely after he spent all of pregame laid up on the athletic trainer's table. The 22-year-old superstar was fine Friday, going 2-for-5 with a homer to straightaway center field in a 9-5 loss, but didn't even come out for pregame batting practice the following day.

Trout -- with a .294/.380/.549 slash line on the year -- was also bothered by a tight left hamstring earlier this week, which prompted him to start at designated hitter against the Astros on May 20 and miss the May 21 series finale for precautionary reasons.

"We were going to try to see if he could go out there and swing, but it's just not quite loose enough to where you want him to risk any further injury," said Scioscia, who put Grant Green in Trout's place at the No. 2 spot. "Hopefully it's something that quiets down and he'll be ready to go tomorrow."