The Los Angeles Angels have been relying on Jose Soriano to be brilliant, but last night he cllearly wasn't.
Los Angeles Angels starter Jose Soriano finally had a problematic outing last night as he gave up three runs in five innings against the Chicago White Sox, and after the game manager Kurt Suzuki revealed that Soriano has been struggling with neck stiffness that helped Chicago earn a 5-2 win over the Halos.
This isn’t exactly surprising. Anyone who’s been watching Soriano carefully--which is just about all of us at this point--could see that the right-hander didn’t look comfortable on the mound, and he's been that way for his last start or two. Last night that caught up with Soriano in a big way as the White Sox played long-ball against him, with Colson Montgomery and Drew Romo doing the damage.
“He battled through it,” Suzuki said in a piece written by Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. “All of his games are good, but tonight I might have been the most proud of him for gutting it out and giving us everything he’s got. I know it didn’t come out on our side, but he took the ball and that’s what aces do.”
Soriano’s velocity has been down a little, and last night wildness crept into the pitching equation when the right-hander had trouble finding the strike zone. He needed 97 pitches to record 15 outs, with just 57 of those for strikes.
“It was tough,” Soriano said. “Every time I tried to look down at home plate, it was tough, and the focus was not the same. But in the end, I just tried to help the team the most I could. And even though we didn’t have the result we wanted, we battled.”
Montgomery’s solo shot in the second inning snapped Soriano’s scoreless innings streak at 25-2/3. Soriano gave the Angels a chance to win by gutting his way through five difficult innings, but eventually his lack of control and lower velocity caught up with him.
“He made a mistake on a couple pitches, but sometimes that’s the way it goes,” Suzuki said. “He still gave us a chance to win and we just came out on the losing end tonight.”
Soriano also survived a mound visit from Suzuki, pitching coach Mike Maddux and trainer Eric Munson in the fifth inning, but he remained in the game, then got out of the inning. He’s still perfect with runners in scoring position against him with a record of 0-for-15 in that department, and he did get 19 swings-and-misses.
The questionable part of this, however, is running Soriano out for a start with neck tightness to begin with. It’s becoming obvious that the Angels don’t have the pitching to contend, and keeping Soriano healthy should be a bigger priority going forward.