ANAHEIM, Calif. _ Andrew Heaney stepped back, stepped up, and fired a fastball faster than he ever had. With his 92nd pitch Monday night at Angel Stadium, Heaney reached further within his frame and pumped a 96-mph fastball to Oakland's Ryon Healy.
The pitch caught manager Los Angeles Angels Mike Scioscia's eye, but it was a foot high. Heaney forged on. He spun a curveball that Healy fouled off, then another fastball, up, but enticingly so. Healy swung and missed to become Heaney's 10th and last strikeout of a banner night. In his third start since he returned from elbow ligament replacement surgery sooner than the Angels hoped, Heaney dominated the Athletics and propelled his team to a 3-1 victory.
"He just tore through them," Scioscia said. "Some of the best pitches he made were in his last handful of pitches."
It was not a spotless effort. As on his hurtling 92nd pitch, Heaney was prone to occasional wildness throughout the evening. But unlike his first two starts, he commanded his curveball when the count demanded it and freely alternated between his offerings. Though he walked three, his 10 strikeouts were a career high, and they matched an Angels season high, set three months ago.
Heaney struck out the first three A's he faced, then walked the fourth and allowed a single to the fifth. So, there were runners on the corners with no outs in the second inning, but Heaney worked out of the mess. His lone misstep until the fifth was a third-inning solo shot surrendered to No. 9 hitter Dustin Garneau.
In the fifth, he walked two, spun two wild pitches, and fell behind 2-and-0 to Chad Pinder. Heaney fired three straight strikes, the final a curveball plopped into the bottom of the zone for the strikeout. He concluded by striking out the side in the sixth.
Cameron Maybin doubled to begin the Angels' half of the first. He took third on a passed ball and scored on Kole Calhoun's two-out single. With two outs in the fourth, Martin Maldonado singled and Kaleb Cowart followed with a double to left field, scoring him. Cowart starred when he reached the big leagues last month but had fallen into a tailspin in recent weeks, his playing time lessening in corresponding waves.
Monday, he had the big hit, and a sizable play in the field, diving to keep a fast-paced grounder in the infield. Instead of runners on the corners without an out, the Athletics had a man on second and one out against rookie right-hander Keynan Middleton. He induced a groundout and a strikeout and gave way to veteran Yusmeiro Petit for the eighth.
Before Petit took the mound, the Angels added a run on a Maldonado single, Ben Revere double and Oakland error. Then, Petit permitted two hard-hit balls and a walk. But one of the drives went as a lineout, and he induced a double play when it was necessary. Blake Parker struck out the side around a walk in the ninth.
As the rest of the Angels' upstart relievers have faltered, more than four months of almost undisturbed success finally netted Parker this opportunity. In three days, the triple-A Iowa Cubs' all-time saves leader has doubled up his career save total in the major leagues _ from two to four.
