Pastor made his West Coast debut on May 28 when he met the undefeated 12-0 Bob Nestell at the Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, California. Nestell dropped Pastor in round one, and Pastor dropped him in rounds one and three en route to a 10 round points win for Pastor. In his next fight, Pastor lost to the 28-4-3 Nathan Mann by unanimous 10 round decision at the Madison Square Garden, on November 26, 1937. After a relatively restful 1937, Pastor began 1938 with four fights in less than thirty days, beating Hans Havlicek by technical knockout in 8 on January 17, Buck Tracy by technical knockout in 2 on the 24th, Buck Everett on points in 10 on January 31, and then ranked contender Al Ettore by 10 round unanimous decision on February 7. Pastor then faced Lou Nova on April 22, in San Francisco, California. Nova entered the fight with an undefeated record of 16-0-3, and emerged with his undefeated streak still intact after the two men fought to a ten round draw. On May 10, back in Los Angeles, Pastor made his Olympic Auditorium debut, defeating contender Lee Ramage by a ninth round technical knockout when Ramage's manager Pop Foster threw in the towel, signifying their surrender. Pastor knocked out the 24-6-1 Chuck Crowell in the first round and then faced Al McCoy, a hard-punching fighter who had once been recognized as world Light-Heavyweight champion by the Montreal Athletic Commission. Pastor outpointed McCoy over ten rounds on June 20, 1938 and ten days later, he outpointed Freddie Fiducia. On August 5, Pastor fought former world Light-Heavyweight champion Maxie Rosenbloom, whose career was drawing to a close. Rosenbloom and Pastor fought to a ten round draw at Los Angeles' Gilmore Stadium, in Rosenbloom's second to last fight. After wins over Big Bob Brackey and Mickey Duggan, Pastor fought with the 36-4 contender Gus Dorazio, at the Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on December 12, losing by a split decision. One judge scored the fight 5-4-1 in rounds for Dorazio, another scored it for Pastor by the same margin, and the third and deciding judge scored it 4-4-2, but had Dorazio ahead on points using a supplemental scoring system. Rematch with Louis for world Heavyweight title Pastor built a six fight winning streak after losing to Dorazio. Every victory during that streak was on points over ten rounds, including a