"Dan Haren took the mound Tuesday night looking not only for his first win as an Angel, but for his first win of the summer, having gone 10 starts for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Angels without one.

It wasn't that he hadn't pitched well, but a combination of forces worked against him since that last win June12.

Nearly two months later, Haren finally got that elusive 'W' next to his name in the box score after the Angels eked out a 3-1 victory against the KansasCity Royals in front of a cap-night crowd of 43,512 at Angel Stadium.

"I definitely feel like I'm more a part of the team," Haren said. "Personally I want to win games but I'm really not so interested in personal accolades. But to not have the team win a game I pitched (stunk). Every time I came in (the clubhouse) after a game I pitched it was quiet and I hated the drive home. Now, there's music playing."

The win allowed the Angels to keep pace with the first-place Texas Rangers, who beat the New York Yankees 4-3 and still lead the Angels by 8½games in the AmericanLeague West.

Haren was 0-2 in three starts with the Angels and 0-6 in his previous 10 starts overall going back to that June 12 victory over St. Louis while pitching for Arizona.

"I lost a couple of leads late, but (the winless streak) was not something I ever experienced in my career," Haren said. "It's hard to win a game in the big leagues - but not that hard."

Tuesday he gave the Angels the type of game that has come to be expected of him, and the reason the Angels sent pitcher Joe Saunders and prospects to the Diamondbacks on July 25 to get him. Haren challenged hitters and let his defense make plays behind him, but admitted he wasn't totally on his game.

"I had only one walk but I was all over the place," he said. "But I made pitches when I needed to."

The Pepperdine product threw 102 pitches in seven innings, 62 for strikes, gave up five hits (all singles) and walked one while striking out three.

"The one thing a pitcher can't control is wins," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "He can control execution of his pitches but if you have poor execution in the field and at the plate, you're not going to win games.""