ARLINGTON, Texas _ Los Angeles Angels starter Andrew Heaney unleashed his hardest pitch of a career-best performance as the heat index at Globe Life Park approached 110 degrees Tuesday afternoon. When the 94 mph fastball zipped into the zone for a strike, one could barely tell the left-hander had already thrown 107 pitches.
Heaney did not succumb to the stifling heat in the Angels' 5-1 victory over the Texas Rangers in the first game of Tuesday's doubleheader. He embraced the weather instead, and struck out a career-high 14 batters. He retired 16 in a row after allowing back-to-back singles in the first inning and finished his outing with just one run charged to his name.
During this injury-riddled campaign, Heaney has struggled to stay active long enough to replicate the success he had while leading the Angels with 30 starts and 180 strikeouts in 180 innings last year. A spring-training elbow injury sidelined him until late May; shoulder inflammation in July forced him to miss another three weeks.
In his long-delayed 12th start of the season, Heaney finally showed flashes of his previous form.
Some 15 hours after seven Angels pitchers issued nine walks in an 11-inning loss Monday, Heaney didn't walk anyone for a second consecutive start. He threw 79 of 108 pitches for strikes. He induced 22 swings-and-misses.
Hard contact eluded most all the Rangers who faced him.
"I was able to keep all my pitches on line and through the strike zone," said Heaney, who joined Dan Haren (May 24, 2012) and Frank Tanana (June 21, 1975) as the only Angels pitchers to strike out at least 14 batters without a walk. "I tried to just get ahead early. Everyone knows it's hot. I was trying to get as deep into the game as I can, trying to save the bullpen."
Mike Trout's career-high 42nd home run scored two in a three-run first inning. The blast gave Heaney plenty of cushion to adhere to a few tips he was given before the game.
"Conserve energy at all costs," a stranger told Heaney. "Don't back up bases. Don't even leave the dirt. Just stay there. Stay within yourself. Don't blow it out early."
So Heaney did not. He wasted few pitches. He allowed a home run to Willie Calhoun in the sixth and a single to Nick Solak in the seventh, but hardly exerted himself otherwise. When he left the mound after each inning, he hid in shade and sat in front of a fan.
Heaney's cooling techniques and quick innings in the opener, which was the makeup of the July 1 game postponed after Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs was found dead in his hotel room, helped manager Brad Ausmus stay away from his taxed bullpen until the ninth inning.
Heaney prolonged a resurgence that began when he returned from his latest injured list stint Aug. 10. He has allowed only five earned runs in 18 2/3 innings over his last three starts. Hitters have hit a paltry .164 against the left-hander, with most of their limited damage coming on the three homers he has surrendered.
It is too late for Heaney to make up entirely what he referred to as a disappointing season. But carrying momentum from this start onward would allow him to script an optimistic ending.
"Last year when he was at his best, he was aggressive," Ausmus said. "He attacks the hitters. He really mixed his pitches today as well as he's mixed them.
"This is the guy we thought we had when he's healthy."
