Kendry Morales

After Kendry Morales hit his first home run of the season, a three-run shot in the first inning against the Detroit Tigers on April 22, Manager Mike Scioscia said, "You could almost see him exhale." Morales was batting .234 with four runs batted in before that game, raising some concern -- among Angels fans more than coaches and front-office executives -- that the Cuban switch-hitter was not ready to be a big league regular. But since that night in Anaheim, Morales is batting .

SEATTLE - It seemed like progress for Joe Blanton, who delivered his first quality start of the season Saturday night, but even after matching Seattle ace Felix Hernandez for six innings, the Angels right-hander took no solace in a 3-2 loss the Mariners in Safeco Field. “I'm not pleased, not with four walks,” said Blanton, who has averaged only 2.4 walks per nine innings in his career. “I don't like walking guys no matter what. I can live with myself when guys are smacking the ball all over the place and I'm throwing strikes.

It was one at-bat, one of more than 1,500 he has had as a professional, but to the Angels it seemed like so much more. With the score tied in Game 4 of the American League division series against Boston last Oct. 6, Kendry Morales smacked Justin Masterson's 2-and-2 pitch for a pinch-hit double off the left-center-field wall in Fenway Park to lead off the ninth inning.

  Just when Peter Bourjos thought he was out, the Angels pulled him back in, clearing a spot for the speedy center fielder Wednesday by trading designated hitter Kendrys Morales to the Seattle Mariners for left-hander Jason Vargas. Vargas, who turns 30 on Feb. 2, will deepen the rotation - the former Long Beach State teammate of Angels ace Jered Weaver went 14-11 with a 3.85 earned-run average in 33 starts last season, striking out 141 and walking 55 in 217 1/3 innings.

It seems impossible to believe, but the numbers speak for themselves. The Angels have been a better team since losing their best hitter, Kendry Morales , to a season-ending injury May 29. With Saturday's 12-0 pasting of the Chicago Cubs, the Angels are 15-5 since Morales broke a bone above his left ankle. They have averaged 5.9 runs, hit 25 home runs and raised their batting average from .250 to .259 in the 20 games. Erick Aybar raised his average from .231 to .272 in that span.

Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said Kendry Morales "has made great strides on defense and in the batter's box," but the Angels first baseman has not run at anything close to full speed yet, casting some doubt on whether he'll be ready by the March 31 season opener. The 6-foot-1, 235-pound switch-hitter's swing is coming back. Morales rocketed numerous balls high over the right-field wall in batting practice Friday, as the Angels worked out in preparation for Saturday's Cactus League opener against the Dodgers.

A perplexing bunch, these Angels hitters. They struggle for the first two months of the season, lose their most productive bat to a freak injury at the end of May, and they take off in June. The Angels turned a tight game into a walk in the park on Saturday, taking advantage of Seattle's control problems to score six runs in the sixth inning and four in the seventh en route to an 11-2 romp of the Mariners in Safeco Field. Ervin Santana won his fifth consecutive start, giving up one run and seven hits in six innings to improve to 6-3 and lower his earned-run average to 3.29.

Who's on first? For the Angels, it could be a lot of different people in the coming weeks. Mike Napoli manned first base Sunday in the first game since Kendry Morales fractured his lower left leg in a freak accident during a home-plate celebration. Other alternatives on the current roster include Robb Quinlan , Michael Ryan and Howie Kendrick . General Manager Tony Reagins said the Angels would assess their options within the organization in the short term while also exploring the possibility of adding a player via trade or free agency.

After playing six years under an assumed name, Angels first baseman Kendry Morales is getting his identity back. His first name, it turns out, is Kendrys with an "s" on the end. "They've been spelling it wrong," Morales insisted after batting practice Wednesday. In official documents, such as his Cuban birth certificate and manifests the Angels must file for their charter flights, Morales' name has always been spelled Kendrys Morales Rodriguez. But when the Angels signed him to a free-agent deal in 2004, he told then-general manager Bill Stoneman he wanted to drop the "s. " "He was Kendry," Stoneman said.

It was a fluke accident that ended his season on May 29, pushed him onto sports' most bizarre injuries list and punctured the Angels' playoff hopes, but nearly four months later, Kendry Morales is able to see some humor in it. Morales was in Angel Stadium on Tuesday and spoke to reporters for the first time since he broke his lower left leg jumping on the plate after his walk-off home run against the Seattle Mariners. The first baseman, who hit .306 with 34 home runs and 108 runs batted in last season and had 11 homers and 39 RBIs when he was injured, chuckled when asked what he would do the next time he hits a walk-off homer.

The Angels have traded first baseman Kendrys Morales to the Seattle Mariners for left-hander Jason Vargas, a move that deepens the Angels' rotation and opens up a spot for speedy center fielder Peter Bourjos. Morales, who is one year away from becoming a free agent, spent most of 2012 as the team's designated hitter, batting .273 with 22 home runs and 73 runs batted in. He is projected to make $4.8 million this season, his final year of arbitration. Vargas, 29, who played at Long Beach State with Angels ace Jered Weaver, went 14-11 with a 3.85 earned run average in 33 starts for the Mariners last season, striking out 141 and walking 55 in 217 1/3 innings.

It might have taken awhile, but Albert Pujols' numbers are where the Angels hoped they'd be this time of season. Pujols broke a scoreless tie Sunday with a two-run, sixth-inning double that moved him past the 100-runs-batted-in threshold for the 11th time in 12 seasons, and the Angels completed a three-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox, 4-1. Kendrys Morales followed Pujols' double with a two-run home run to right field and Angels ace Jered Weaver...

The Angels, behind another superb effort by resurgent right-hander Ervin Santana, beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-2, Friday night for their 82nd victory, assuring them of their eighth winning season in nine years. Whoopee. That might be cause for celebration in Pittsburgh or Cleveland and a ticker-tape parade in Houston, but the Angels had more in mind when they splurged on free agents Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson last winter and acquired Zack Greinke in July. They expected to contend for the World Series title, but their uneven play over six months has left them in need of a miracle - in this case, an Oakland or Baltimore collapse - to reach the one-game wild-card playoff.

KANSAS CITY, Mo.   - Switch-hitter Kendrys Morales had a .290 average against right-handers and a .209 mark against lefties, so it was no surprise Friday night when Kansas City Manager Ned Yost summoned left-hander Tim Collins to face the pinch-hitter in the eighth inning with the Royals leading by two runs. "It was the right move," Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said. Must have been the wrong time. Morales, swinging from the right side, drove a first-pitch fastball over the left-field wall for a tying home run, and Torii Hunter's bases-loaded walk plated the go-ahead run, as the Angels came back for a 9-7 victory that moved them to within 2 1/2 games of the second American League wild-card spot.

Dan Haren's durability was supposed to pace a playoff run and springboard the Angels pitcher to a lucrative payoff in his contract year. Instead, Haren, who made more starts than any pitcher between 2005 and 2011, was sidelined because of back pain in July, and Saturday he reverted to the uncharacteristic ineffective outings that plagued him before going on the disabled list. Haren (8-9) didn't make it through four innings, his shortest start since 2003, and the Angels were defeated by the Seattle Mariners, 7-4. "I have to hold up my end of the deal, and for most of this year, I haven't," said Haren, declaring himself free of any back discomfort.

OAKLAND — Zack Greinke was obtained for an Angels playoff push, but after an outing he described as perhaps his "worst day of control," that mission is further muddied. His replacement, LaTroy Hawkins, was brought to Anaheim to stabilize the bullpen, but his afternoon Wednesday was spoiled because "I couldn't make a pitch I needed to. " So despite hitting a season-high five home runs, the Angels lost to the Oakland Athletics, 9-8, falling 11/2 games off their division rivals' pace for the American League's final wild-card spot.

An already heated rivalry between the Angels and New York Yankees grew more feisty Friday night, with bodies colliding into each other, a pair of fastballs thrown to the solar plexus of players from both teams, and one Angel winding up in the hospital. Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira delivered a knockout blow in the third inning, but it was a Kendry Morales haymaker in the eighth, a two-run homer to right field off Yankees reliever Joba Chamberlain, that won it for the Angels, 6-4. Closer Brian Fuentes, booed off the Angel Stadium mound when he blew a save against Detroit on Wednesday, retired the side — Nick Johnson, Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez — in order in the ninth.

Manager Mike Scioscia , looking to shake up the offense after the Angels were swept in a three-game series in Detroit, flip-flopped Hideki Matsui and Kendry Morales in the fourth and fifth spots Monday night. Matsui batted cleanup in each of the team's first 26 games, but the designated hitter was mired in a three-for-25 slump that dropped his average from .310 on April 24 to .260 through Sunday. He was one for four in the Angels' 17-8 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Monday.

ARLINGTON, Texas - Kendrys Morales sent Angels public relations officials scurrying for the record books Monday night, hitting a two-run home run from the left side of the plate and a grand slam from the right side in a nine-run sixth inning to lead the Angels to a 15-8 victory over the Texas Rangers at the Ballpark in Arlington. Morales became the third player in major league history to homer from both sides of the plate in one inning, joining the Chicago Cubs' Mark Bellhorn, who accomplished the feat on Aug. 29, 2002, against Milwaukee, and Cleveland's Carlos Baerga, who did it on April 8, 1993, against the New York Yankees.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The gloves came off - literally - for Kendrys Morales on a steamy 102-degree evening, and the fight soon returned to the Angels designated hitter, who had not put up much resistance in the batter's box this month. Mired in a slump in which he had one extra-base hit in 67 plate appearances and was beginning to fray emotionally, the Cuban switch-hitter unleashed his fury and frustration on the Texas Rangers with an outburst that sent Angels media relations officials scurrying for the record books Monday night.