Alvarez’s value on display

MIAMI — Maybe “workhorse” is too strong a term to describe Angels left-handed reliever Jose Alvarez. Yes, he’s pitched in 64 games over each of the last two seasons. Yes, he leads the league in appearances this season. And yes, he’s on pace to pitch in exactly half of the 162 games scheduled for 2017.

His 26 appearances this season leads the team and is tied for the American League lead. However, his appearances haven’t been overly taxing if broken down by individual outings.

“Reliable,” perhaps, may be a more accurate term in evaluating the importance of Alvarez, who recorded his first major league save on April 28 at Texas. In doing so, he became the first lefthander to earn a save for the Angels since Scott Downs did it on July 23, 2012.

“Even though those appearances are there, I think his pitch count for each appearance is very low,” manager Mike Scioscia said. “But yeah, we’ve projected a lot of numbers and they kind of get a little scary if the pace keeps up.”

Alvarez pitched in six of the 10 games on the trip, which ended Sunday. He has not allowed a score in 20 of his 26 outings and is a key reason the Angels bullpen leads the AL in percentage of inherited runners scored (22.2%). Relievers have stranded 58 of 75 inherited runners. Alvarez leads the group, stranding 16 of 19.

Short hops

Bud Norris’ right knee reacted well on Saturday. Norris was forced to leave Friday’s game because of tightness in the knee after only three pitches. But on Saturday he worked a full inning, striking out one in the ninth, to close out a 5-2 win. The only hit he allowed was a solo homer to Marcell Ozuna .… Huston Street, who went on the 60-day disabled list April 1 because of a strained right lat, threw a perfect inning for triple-A Salt Lake City on Saturday. Street struck out two in his second perfect inning of work since the injury. … Cam Bedrosian (right groin strain) continues to progress. He’ll begin to pitch this week.