ST. LOUIS – Asked in the glow of the Cardinals’ 7-2 throttling of the back-to-back champion Dodgers on Friday where his clutch, seventh-inning strikeout of Shohei Ohtani stood in his career, George Soriano’s response was about as casual as his restrained fist pump in the moment.

“I don’t really have an idea about (where the moment would rank in his career) because that’s the third time that I’ve struck out Ohtani,” Soriano said through Cardinals’ bullpen catcher and translator Kleininger Teran. “So, it’s not the first time.”

Soriano, a rising talent out of a Cardinals bullpen that has difficulty throwing strikes and holding leads, casually left out the fact that Ohtani reached him for a historic 438-foot homer on Sept. 19, 2024, a long ball that allowed Ohtani to become the first member of the 50-homer, 50-stolen base club in MLB history. But this fact remains in their head-to-head battles through the years – Soriano came into Saturday having whiffed the four-time MVP three times and given up only the history homer in five at bats.

That Soriano, 27, was even in the game to face Ohtani in a 4-2 game at the time speaks to the drastic improvement he has made under the tutelage of Cardinals’ bullpen coach Julio Rangel and pitching coach Dusty Blake. After spending three seasons with the Marlins from 2023-25, Soriano was claimed off by the Orioles and subsequently designated for assignment by Baltimore, Atlanta and Washington – a process the Cardinals were a part of each time and unsuccessfully tried to claim Soriano because of his potential. The Nats traded him to the Cardinals early in Spring Training, and he not only made the Opening Day roster, but has come to the aid of the Cards in recent games.

Pitching in many of the high-leverage spots the Cardinals expected to use struggling veteran Ryne Stanek, Soriano has allowed just one run and four hits over his last six outings. He smothered the Dodgers over 1 1/3 innings on Friday, and he came up big in two outings in Pittsburgh when St. Louis swept the Pirates over a four-game series earlier in the week.

In 15 games, Soriano is 1-0 with a 3.68 while holding foes to a .154 batting average with the "gyro slider" taught to him by the Cardinals. His ground ball rate (53.7 percent) ranks in MLB''s top 88th percentile, while the velocity on his average fastball (96.5 mph) ranks in the top 80th percentile. Also, there's this: Foes are struggling against his slider (.100 batting average), four-seamer (.158) and his changeup (100).

“We’ve thrown some multiples on (Gordon Graceffo), so we knew if it was a situation where we had to get out of the sixth and the seventh, it would be Soriano,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “He made his pitch and the Ohtani (moment), I love that at bat. I can’t give the game plan and (catcher Pedro Pages) ability to navigate that lineup. The punch out on Ohtani was pretty sweet.”

What made Soriano’s success against Ohtani even more “sweet” for the Cardinals was the manner that he attacked the superstar slugger. He used a changeup, four-seam fastball and a slider to get ahead 1-2 and keep Ohtani guessing. After missing with two changeups, Soriano caught the Dodgers’ star looking for a 98.4 mph four-seam fastball right down the middle.

What followed the Ohtani strikeout was even more surprising to Cardinals’ teammates who know Soriano for being incredibly quiet, shy and unassuming: A fist pump.

“Yeah, that’s a lot of emotion for George,” starter Matthew Liberatore joked. “Even inside the clubhouse, he’s definitely on the quieter side. To see any emotion from him, that was awesome and you know he was pretty fired up about that.”   

Added Soriano, who flashed a quick smile at mention of the fist pump: “I understand how good Ohtani is and I just went with my strengths there. That was my mentality. When you win, you want to celebrate. That moment helped us win and that’s why I celebrated (with the fist pump.)”  

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