New team, same work for dominant Heaney

Over a wild offseason that saw him traded twice on the same day, Andrew Heaney never felt his approach or mentality waver. Back on the mound in game action on Friday, he pitched up to his billing as the Angels' top prospect.

MLB.com's No. 26 overall prospect was lights-out in his first regular-season outing for his new organization, striking out eight and allowing two hits over seven innings as Triple-A Salt Lake blanked Sacramento, 2-0.

"I've been working on some mechanical things that have been like night and day for me," Heaney said. "It helps to keep everything true, so I felt really good. My fastball command was good for the most part, changeup was working. I mixed in sliders late. I feel pretty good about it."

The 23-year-old left-hander allowed one-out singles in the first and third innings, then locked down the River Cats. Heaney (1-0) retired 10 straight batters from the third until the sixth inning, when Juan Perez reached on a two-out error charged to shortstop Josh Rutledge. The miscue didn't faze Heaney, who disposed of the final four batters he faced and felt positive about his tweaked mechanics.

"I was just trying to get on line, stay down the mound and keep a firm front side," he said. "I was closing myself off early in the spring, so I just had a little tweak. I'm staying on the back side and not rushing to the plate."

In addition to his physical adaptations, the southpaw utilized a varied mix of pitches the deeper he got in the game.

"The first time through was mostly fastball-changeup," Heaney said. "I threw a few sliders when I needed to. I felt like the third time through, they were going to be hunting that fastball earlier in the count, so I was mixing in sliders a little more frequently."

In December, Heaney had a day to remember when the Dodgers acquired him from the Marlins before spinning him off to the Angels just hours later. The ninth overall pick in the 2012 Draft called the day "all kinds of crazy" when he talked with MLB.com after the trades but had a relaxed perspective on Friday.

"I don't think it affected me that much," he said. "Whatever team I'm on, it's the same thing. I don't think it took me but a day to settle and figure everything out. After that, it was just baseball."

The Bees handed Heaney a lead in the second when Rutledge drove in Alfredo Marte with a groundout. Salt Lake's Carlos Perez led off the third with his first homer of the season to double the advantage.

"For us, having not scored any yesterday, I think it was good for those guys to get one on the board early, get a little bit of confidence," Heaney said. "Everyone was swinging the bat really well tonight. It's a big park and it seems like most games here are going to be low-scoring. Knowing that, a 1-0, 2-0 lead seems like a lot. It's always nice to pitch with a lead and feel a little bit more comfortable."

Jeremy McBryde followed Heaney and worked around a hit in the eighth before Ryan Mattheus struck out two in a perfect ninth for the save.

River Cats starter Braulio Lara (0-1) took the loss after allowing two runs on five hits over five innings. He struck out six without walking a batter.