Dan Haren Dominance: 7 Ks in 3 IP

Little needs to be said about a pitcher's lousy Spring Training starts but when a guy's tune up includes 7 strikeouts in 3 Innings Pitched, the story of the game writes itself. That was the deal in Dan Haren cruising to an Angels victory over the Diamondbacks in Arizona. Kole Calhoun hit his 4th double of the Spring and Alexi Amarista hit his 2nd HR of the Cactus League. The thought of "Amarista" and "TWO HR" is something I might have though applied to "CAREER" and not "just tuning up".

Leaving Albert Pujols back in Tempe, the Angels offense had runs produced by Amarista's homer, a double by Alberto Callaspo and a sac fly by Jean Segura. Not exactly murderer's row but manslaughter with the bats was all that was needed with Haren absolutely dealing. The righty faced 10 batters, allowed 1 hit along with the 7 strikeouts. Talk about "Rising to the Ace-Casino" ...this is an afternoon where the lively debate of just who this team's ace is can be up for grabs.

Kendrys Morales did not play in the game today but I piped in on LunchTime HaloTalk with my opinion of how his return will be this season and shot video of my dissertation...