"Before sending him off for an off-season spent working to reclaim his skills, Angels manager Mike Scioscia said this would be the most important winter of Scott Kazmir's career.

By extension that would seem to make this the most important spring of the 27-year-old left-hander's career - but Kazmir isn't looking at it that way.

"I felt like I did the work," Kazmir said after the Angels lost 5-0 to the Dodgers Sunday. "I'm not putting too much pressure on spring training games. I feel I did the work, now just let it happen.

"If I get caught up in what other people are saying about me, no telling where my mind's at. I feel confident where I'm at right now."

Kazmir's spring debut Sunday against the Dodgers looked like a throwback to some of the troublesome starts of last season when he went 9-15 with a 5.94 ERA. Three of the first four Dodgers he faced reached base and he gave up three runs on five hits in his two innings of work.

As important as it might be for Kazmir to start re-establishing himself this spring, Angels manager Mike Scioscia said too much shouldn't be read into every Cactus League line.

"I think you still have to keep perspective of what he needs to do," Scioscia said. "He's already throwing the ball better than he did at any time last spring. There's still room to clean some things up. But we saw a lot of positives out there.

"This was a good first step and we'll hopefully keep building on that."

Kazmir gave himself a "7 or 8" on a scale of 10 for his first spring start, emphasizing that he "felt great" about his improved delivery and not having to "manipulate my body to get the ball over the plate.""