The Los Angeles Angels badly needed a strong start from Jose Soriano, but instead they got the opposite.
Los Angeles Angels starter Jose Soriano has been on a magical run, but last night it came to a painful end as the Angels got shut out by the Chicago White Sox, 6-0, as the Angels lost their 13th game in the last 15 tries.
Soriano lacked anything resembling his usual command, and as a result the Angels were never really in this game. He walked the first two hitters he faced, and Chase Meidroth and Andrew Benintendi each drove in a run with a single, putting the Angels down 2-0 right out of the gate.
Things never really got better for Soriano. The Angels offense did next to nothing in this one, and the White Sox put up another crooked number in the fourth inning with a two-run homer by Munetaka Murikami and a solo shot by Miguel Vargas that put the Halos down 5-0.
Soriano’s number told the story of his failure on this particular day. It took him 88 pitches to get through four innings, and he failed to throw first pitch strikes to 13 of the 23 hitters he faced, according to Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com.
Soriano had some issues with neck stiffness in his last start, but he said that wasn’t the issue this time around.
“It was one of those days where I couldn’t control the strike zone,” Soriano said. “They put in good swings too. They are a very good team now and they are putting very good swings together and you see the result. It's a little bit tough to face the same team after they already saw what you got, but you have to continue to battle and that's what I did.”
Manager Kurt Suzuki tried to put a positive spin in this Soriano outing, but he didn’t have a lot to bolster his case. His primary starter went from invincible to hittable very quickly, and it came when at a time when the Angels needed a win in the worst possible way.
“Obviously they put some good swings on him,” manager Kurt Suzuki said. “The velo was up, stuff was good. It's hard to tell from the side, but maybe pitch execution. That's the only thing that I can see. But he's been so good for us this year and the last start against them last time he had a stiff neck. And tonight, I feel like they just put good at-bats together. Sometimes you’ve got to tip your hat.”
The Angels have been tipping their collective hats to the other team in virtually every game right now, and the glow that came with the initial positive signs has faded. It might not be a bad idea to push Soriano back a day to help him get back on track.