"When Angels manager Mike Scioscia moved Torii Hunter out of the No. 2 spot in the Angels' lineup last week, Hunter did not do a dance in the middle of the locker room or start chanting, "Free at last. Free at last."

His bat has done it for him.

Hunter has a hit in each of the eight games since he was moved out of the second spot, multiple hits in five of them, including three three-hit games, and is 16 for 31 (.516) since the change.

"I was so happy," Hunter said. "I didn't feel comfortable in the '2-hole' – but we were winning. Don't break it."

Hunter spent most of a month batting second in the Angels' lineup, a move Scioscia made to try and jump-start both Hunter and the middle of the order behind him, one of many moves Scioscia has tried to squeeze as much life as he can out of an offense that all too often has come up short.

It certainly didn't work for Hunter. He batted just .198 (22 for 111) in 30 games (29 starts) as the second hitter in the Angels' order.

"I've never hitter there in my career – not in the minor leagues, not in Little League," Hunter said. "I've been hitting 3, 4, 5, 6 my whole career. I'm just comfortable with it. That's the way it is.

"You look at little guys in the '2-hole,' slapping the ball around, hitting-and-running. That's no fun. I like to swing hard."

Scioscia dismissed any correlation between Hunter's current hot streak and the move down in the order. While he acknowledged Hunter's statistics batting second were not good, Scioscia pointed out "some of the numbers early this season in the '4-hole' weren't either." Hunter has batted both third and fourth in the past week."