Angels pitcher Ervin Santana is bringing the good stuff again

Reporting from Surprise, Ariz. — 

Ervin Santana has said since his first few bullpen sessions in February that his arm feels infinitely better than it did last season, and the Angels right-hander is now backing those words with results.

Santana was dominant for three innings in Saturday’s 12-3 exhibition loss to the Kansas City Royals, giving up one infield single, striking out five and consistently hitting 94 mph with his fastball on the Surprise Stadium radar gun.

Santana, who threw two scoreless innings in his first Cactus League start Monday, mixed in several sharp curves and changeups, fueling optimism he will return to his 2008 form, when he went 16-7 with a 3.49 earned-run average and pitched in the All-Star game.

Slowed by an elbow sprain for most of 2009, Santana had seen his fastball, which hovers around 96 mph when he is sound, drop to the 91-mph range, and he went 8-8 with a 5.03 ERA.

“That was impressive,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “No doubt, the stuff he’s showing now rivals what he was doing a couple of years ago. The trick is going to be to maintain it.”

Santana struck out the heart of the Royals order — Billy Butler, Jose Guillen and Josh Fields — in the first and second innings and whiffed Mitch Maier and Jason Kendall to open the third.

“It reminded me of 2008, when I struck out almost everybody,” said Santana, who skipped winter ball in the Dominican Republic for the first time since he became a professional.

“I felt very good — everything was working perfectly. Every day, I’m getting more excited that I can get back to where I was two years ago.”

Power point

Mike Napoli has hit four home runs in six Cactus League games, a power surge that, if maintained through a 162-game schedule, would put the Angels catcher on a pace for 108 home runs.

“Of course I’d like to save some for the regular season, but it’s not like I’m going to go up there and say, ‘Oh, I don’t want to hit a home run,’ ” Napoli said. “I just want it to carry over.

“I felt good coming into camp, I’m taking every at-bat as seriously as I can, and I’m seeing the ball well. I’m just going to roll with it.”

Napoli has had to share catching duties with Jeff Mathis because Mathis is the superior defender, and Scioscia emphasizes defense more than offense at the position.

But if the right-handed-hitting Napoli, who hit 20 homers in each of the last two seasons, becomes even more of an offensive force, he could earn more starts behind the plate or at designated hitter, where he would spell the left-handed-hitting Hideki Matsui.

“We’ll have some options,” Scioscia said. “Mike could pick up some of those [DH at-bats], for sure.”

Run, Hideki, run

The fact that Matsui was in Saturday’s lineup meant the 35-year-old designated hitter, slowed in recent years by arthritic knees, felt no ill effects from Friday’s game against the White Sox, when he scored from first on a Kendry Morales triple.

“There has been no trepidation as far as the things he’s doing in the batter’s box and running the bases,” Scioscia said of Matsui, who was hitless in three at-bats Saturday. “That first adrenaline rush of going first to home is a different feel than when you simulate it [in practice], but he, um, made it.”

Barely, apparently.

“I can’t tell you what he said when he got to the dugout,” Scioscia said, “but it was funny.”

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com