ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Chris Archer followed up his best game of the season with, well, his best game of the season.

The lanky Tampa Bay right-hander struck out a career-high 15 batters to lead the Rays over the Los Angeles Angels 6-1 Tuesday night at Angel Stadium.

It wasn't even a week ago that Archer threw eight scoreless innings against the Seattle Mariners, striking out 12 and walking none. Although the Rays eventually lost that game, Archer turned heads with his dominant performance.

On Tuesday, he matched the eight innings, gave up a home run to Angels first baseman Albert Pujols, but again walked nobody. He also ended the Los Angeles' five-game winning streak, a surge that was fueled by an offense that hit 13 homers and scored 33 runs during that span.

Archer subdued the previously hot Angels hitters by mixing his 96 mph fastball primarily with a wicked slider and an occasional changeup, striking out at least one batter in each of his eight innings. Six Angels hitters struck out at least twice, including center fielder Mike Trout, who fanned three times.

"It all stems from fastball command," Archer said. "They take bad swings with the slider because you're in the zone with the heater so much. And when they're thinking slider, you can go heater. I just feel like the past 10 days, the command of the fastball has been significantly better than 10, 15 days prior."

Archer (6-4) struck out everyone in the Angels' starting lineup at least once except for Pujols.

Pujols also provided the only run of the night off Archer, hitting a solo homer in the fourth inning, his sixth homer in six games. It was his 534th career homer, tying Jimmie Foxx for 17th on the all-time list.

Archer's 15 strikeouts matched the Rays' single-game record established by James Shields on Oct. 2, 2012, against the Baltimore Orioles.

Archer said he wasn't aware how many strikeouts he had until after he was out of the game.

"No clue," he said. "Longo (third baseman Evan Longoria) told me after I finished the eighth, congrats on tying the franchise record.

"We don't have any clue, and if you're out there counting strikeouts, you're either desperate for them or you're so far out-of-this-world good that this game is easy. I was in the moment. I knew I had struck out quite a few people, but my focus was each individual pitch, my focus was 60 feet, 6 inches away."

Archer, who gave up six hits Tuesday, has allowed one run in 16 innings with 27 strikeouts and no walks in the past two starts. That is the kind of performance that gives a pitcher an "ace" tag.

"The way he's pitching right now, certainly you would say he's an ace of just about any staff," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "You could take his numbers and put them up against anybody in baseball. Generally aces, when you're talking about THE ace, they've done it over a number of years. He hasn't had the opportunity to do that yet, but in this short stint, I don't see how you can't say he's not."

Angels manager Mike Scioscia said his hitters simply were overmatched.

"He's got great stuff," Scioscia said. "You know going into the game that he's got a power arm with a real good slider. Any looks we got at him, we missed some of the few mistakes he made."

The Rays got all the offense they would need in the first inning when second baseman Logan Forsythe hit a two-run homer off Angels starter C.J. Wilson (3-4). First baseman Jake Elmore also had a big hit, a two-out, two-run single in the sixth that pushed the lead to 4-1.

Wilson gave up five runs on four hits and three walks in six innings. He struck out seven.

"It was one of those games C.J. pitched and had better stuff than his line score is going to show," Scioscia said. "Six innings, things got away from him. He couldn't clean up that sixth inning."

That was when the Ray