Had the game not gone on as scheduled, Haren would have had to either pitch to Dodgers hitters in a cage back at their Glendale facility — where the White Sox and Indians were rained out — or he would have had to pitch another day and mess with the schedule of his preparation for the season.

"When I got to the field today, I thought there would be no chance," Haren said after Los Angeles' 6-5 defeat. "I'm definitely happy I got it in. Otherwise, Plan B and C weren't too appealing to me, so I'm definitely happy we got this done. ... It's always better facing competition and good competition. They had all their guys in there, so that's good."

Haren gave up one run on three hits over two innings, with a two-out walk to Ryan Braun coming around to score on a single by Jonathan Lucroy and a double by Carlos Gomez.

When Braun was introduced for his at-bat, there were loud boos from the crowd, which is somewhat odd for a Brewers home game, but less strange when considering how many Dodgers fans were in the park — and Los Angeles' continued antipathy for the drug-tainted 2011 National League MVP, who won the award over Matt Kemp.

"At first, I wasn't really sure why they were booing," Haren said. "I didn't really think about it. It was pretty loud, but it was probably all the Dodger fans booing. I've been a visitor at Dodger Stadium a lot. I've been booed many times. I've had batteries thrown at me. You want to be on the Dodgers' fans good side."

Haren, then with the Cardinals, had to dodge AA batteries during the 2004 division series, he said. There was nothing quite like that on Saturday, and it's par for the course for Braun at this point, as he has been jeered in most places other than Milwaukee since the revelation of his initial positive drug test, long before the 65-game suspension that ended his 2013 season.

"It's not new," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. "Especially Dodgers and Matt Kemp fans."

Roenicke slumped a bit at even having to talk about the crowd reaction to Braun. He was much more interested in learning about the announcement that Milwaukee will be one of the pilot parks for MLB's video fielding analysis system, announced earlier in the day.

"Good," the manager said. "I think whenever you start putting numbers on people, you better get as good a read as you can, or at least ask the people in the game, what is it that makes this guy so much better and why does he have so much more range? It isn't always just foot speed. It could be where he sets up himself to play. Look at today. I'm looking at the game, looking at the shortstop, and I'm thinking he's too far up the middle. Watching, he was too far up the middle, and there's a base hit between third and short. A smarter guy will be over there. How that plays into what range they'll give him, I don't know.

Positioning will be part of the video system, as will several other factors including the speed with which a ball is hit, and a fielder's reaction time once the ball is put in play.

"Range is also what's up here (in your head) and where you play a guy," Roenicke said. "When you're talking about a guy's range, you can't just talk about where a guy starts and where he ends up. If this guy's smart enough to start here, he's gonna end up having more range than the other guy, because he's smart. I don't like when you start putting numbers on people and you don't have the true numbers. How hard's the ball hit? When a guy has range, how hard is it hit? Well, that'll help."


TANAKA IMPRESSES


Masahiro Tanaka allowed two hits and struck out three over two scoreless innings in his first spring training game for the New York Yankees.

The Japanese star entered in the fifth inning of Saturday's game against Philadelphia. Some fans stood when Tanaka walked to the mound to a loud ovation.

Tanaka signed a $155 million, seven-year contract in January. He was 24-0 with a 1.27 ERA last year while leading Rakuten to its first Japan Series title.


PARNELL PITCHES


New York Mets closer Bobby Parnell threw batting practice Saturday, facing batters for the first time since his 2013 season was cut short by a neck injury.

Parnell last pitched in a game on July 30. He missed the final two months of the season and had surgery Sept. 10 to repair a herniated disc in his neck. The right-hander threw 36 pitches to David Wright, Daniel Murphy and Eric Young Jr.

"You work all offseason throwing bullpens with no batters in there and it seems like you can't miss a spot," Parnell said. "You throw a hitter in there and it becomes 100 times harder. It feels good to get out there and face some guys, face some hitters and find the strike zone with some intensity turned up. It was a nice feeling today."


ANDRUS SIDELINED


Texas Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus is dealing with soreness in his right forearm and will be sidelined for at least a few days.

Assistant general manager Thad Levine said Saturday that Andrus has flexor tendinitis in his throwing arm. The team believes the issue stemmed from being overworked early in camp, and hope a few days off will allow him a chance to recover.

The team provided no exact timetable on when he might start throwing again.


TWINS PROSPECT GONE FOR SEASON


Minnesota Twins slugging prospect Miguel Sano will have Tommy John surgery on his throwing arm and miss the 2014 season.

The 20-year-old third baseman had been trying to rehabilitate a strained ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. He was hurt in October while playing winter ball in his native Dominican Republic.

Twins doctors, along with orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews, recommended rest for Sano in early November.

Despite making strides during a two-month throwing program, Sano reported pain in his elbow after making an off-balance throw during an intrasquad game Thursday.

An MRI exam revealed a partially torn ligament.

Contributors: Jesse Spector, The Associated Press

PHOTOS: Spring training gallery