ANAHEIM — José Soriano gave up four runs in his first career start, and the Angels dropped their second straight game to the Tampa Bay Rays, 4-2, on Wednesday afternoon.
Soriano, a 25-year-old from the Dominican Republic, never had a chance to settle in. He gave up three straight singles up the middle to start the game, taking Randy Arozarena’s comeback hit off of his ankle.
Soriano then threw a wild pitch that allowed two runs to score when catcher Matt Thaiss couldn’t find the ball in a timely manner. A sacrifice fly followed to put the Angels in a 3-0 hole.
José Caballero cracked a solo homer to left field off Soriano to start the second inning and make it a 4-0 deficit.
From that point, Soriano was adequate, but the damage had already been done. He gave up six hits in total while striking out six.
Soriano had been moved into a starting role after right-hander Chase Silseth came out of his last start with elbow inflammation, leading to a stint on the 15-day injury list. Soriano had made his first 40 major league appearances coming out of the bullpen.
Soriano saw time in extended outings during spring training and threw three innings as a long reliever in each of his first two outings of the seasons. He underwent Tommy John surgery twice in a 16-month stretch in 2020 and 2021.
Whether Soriano gets another shot to fill Silseth’s spot in the rotation isn’t clear, but there will be a vacancy in the near term. An MRI showed no structural damage to Silseth, and he aspires to be back for the start of May.
“Seeing the results and stuff, hopefully be back in three weeks,” Silseth said before the game Wednesday morning. “You never know. Just gonna go in there and try to get the swelling and inflammation down and go from there.”
The Angels’ bats started out as poorly as Soriano, failing to strike in the bottom of the first after drawing three straight walks against Zack Littell. Miguel Sanó and Brandon Drury each struck out swinging to end the inning and leaving the bases loaded.
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They finally got on the board in the fourth when Zach Neto doubled to drive in Thaiss.
Jo Adell cut it to 4-2 in the sixth with a solo shot to right-center for his first of the season.
The Angels had one last chance to tie it up in the ninth, but Mickey Moniak struck out with a runner on second base to end the game. Moniak and Angels manager Ron Washington were visibly furious about two called strikes earlier in the at-bat, with Washington stepping onto the field to voice his displeasure.
Mike Trout kept up his strong start, going 2 for 3 with a double and a walk after homering in each of his previous three games, but he finished the game in the on-deck circle when Moniak struck out.
More to come on this story.
