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With the exception of some first-inning hiccups, Los Angeles Angels pitching prospect Alex Meyer is off to a solid start this season with Triple-A Salt Lake.

Meyer, 27, made his second start of the season on Tuesday night at Smith's Ballpark. The right-hander came into this season rated by Baseball America as the No. 3 prospect in the Angels farm system. The former first-round draft pick of the Washington Nationals (2011), Meyer is in his sixth professional season, but a shoulder injury limited him to 25 1/3 innings for the Angels last year after being acquired from the Minnesota Twins in a trade.

During spring training this year, the Angels decided to raise Meyer's arm slot closer to where it had been in college. Meyer touched as high as 97 miles per hour and showed an impressive curveball in his start on Tuesday night.

"Everything feels normal," Meyer said. "I'm not out there thinking about mechanics. It's more now back to thinking about your spot, thinking about the batter. Mechanics-wise, I feel great. I'm not really thinking about anything other than going out there and attacking the hitter and trying to put him away as quick as I can."

Meyer, who pitched five innings with a no-decision on Tuesday, struggled with command in the first inning. He went to a three-ball count on the first three hitters of the game, and issued one walk. He also gave up one run in the opening frame.

All six of his strikeouts came after the first inning, and he allowed four hits and one earned run in his final four innings.

"I started off throwing all two-seamers with my fastball," Meyer said. "I wasn't controlling it at all. It was just moving a little much. I couldn't get ahead with it early on. I came in the second inning and just started throwing four-seamers after that and then working in the two-seamer once we got ahead, which made it a little bit easier to get ahead of guys."

Meyer hit a bump in the road in his first outing last week, the Bees' season opener in Albuquerque. He allowed three runs — all in the first inning — on five hits and one walk. Meyer said he had command of both his two-seam and four-seam fastball. However, Albuquerque started jumping on fastballs early in the count after he got to two outs in the first inning.

"[He's] a little over-amped possibly, early in the game," Bees manager Keith Johnson said. "It's not like his stuff is any worse in the first inning than it is in the fifth inning. He got himself into some bad counts, then he had to put the ball in the strike zone in hitter's counts. In this league, guys are going to find ways to barrel those balls up.

"As the game went along, he got stronger. He got way more efficient with his pitch count, and his command increased as well. He threw some really good breaking balls in those middle innings to get himself into counts and to put guys away."