Who needs a designated hitter? Not the Arizona Diamondbacks; or at least not when they have Dan Haren on the mound. Haren made hitting look easy on Friday night when he single-handedly took on the Toronto Blue Jays. Haren gave up four solo home runs in an 8-6 victory, but contributed to his own cause on the offensive side by cracking a pair of doubles – one after faking a bunt – and driving in three runs.

Haren has almost lapped the field with his 12 hits. The next closest is Milwaukee’s Randy Wolf, who has seven. When it comes to doubles, Haren’s five completely eclipses a slew of others at two. He even has a grand total of four RBI now and five runs scored, which is hardly an impressive number, but with only 29 at bats, he’s averaging about an RBI every seven at bats; a run scored every six, which is still more than can be said for most pitchers.

Drafted and signed in 2001 by the Cardinals, Haren traveled to Oakland in 2005 and Arizona in 2008. He’s achieved All Star status for the last three seasons and finished fifth in Cy Young voting last season. His 2010 isn’t going as smoothly as previous years, but he’s certainly still one of the toughest pitchers to face in the National League, and American League teams are at slightly more of a disadvantage when playing against Haren with National League rules.

As dangerous as Haren is making himself out to be right now, realistically, he’s batting way above his head right now. It’s just that moments like these in a career are really fun to watch. The addition of some power would really make Haren more dangerous. And exciting. He has one career home run and a slugging percentage of .304. A few words with teammate Mark Reynolds would be a wise move. Hopefully Haren is reading.