José Soriano coughs up four runs vs. A’s

Soriano tossed a scoreless first inning, then gave up two runs on two walks and a hit in the second. He settled in for four more scoreless frames, giving up just one more hit the rest of the way before departing after six innings with four strikeouts. The 27-year-old right-hander ends the day with a 3.40 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, and a 115/51 K/BB ratio across 106 innings. He’ll take on the Twins in Minnesota on Sunday.

Soriano cruised through five scoreless innings before running into trouble in the sixth. Seattle started the inning with three straight hits to bring home a run, knocking Soriano from the game at 91 pitches. Both inherited runners would come in to score. He generated 16 whiffs to collect nine strikeouts. The 27-year-old right-hander will take a 3.42 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, and a 111/49 K/BB ratio across 100 innings into a start against the Rangers in Texas next Tuesday.

Samuel Basallo did most of the damage, hitting two-run homers in both the second and third innings. Soriano allowed four other hits, walked two and struck out four. His average fastball today came in at 96.0 mph, making this the third time in four starts that he’s come in down about 1.5 mph from his season average. He was back up to 97.0 mph in his last outing against the A’s, but that was his best mark in June. He averaged 97.7 mph in April and May. Given that he was struggling some even before the velocity hit, he can be considered droppable in shallow leagues. He has a 5.20 ERA and a 53/32 K/BB in 52 1/3 innings since the beginning of May.

Soriano departed after just 76 pitches. He doesn’t expect tonight’s issue to be a problem going forward, so we’ll still pencil him in to face the A’s in Sacramento next week.

Soriano was hit by a comebacker in the first, which might have had something to do with the quick hook. But if he’s fine, this is a nice, positive outing for him. Soriano had a 5.53 ERA with 20 walks in 27 2/3 innings over his previous five starts. He still has a 2.79 ERA overall, but with only a road start in Sacramento on the docket, he seems like a mediocre play in mixed leagues next week.

Wild of late, Soriano seemed focused on throwing strikes, at the expense of some velocity, early in this one. It worked out nicely, too. He allowed just one run and one walk through five. In the sixth, however, he walked Kyle Tucker to start things, got victimized by a Zach Neto error and then gave up back-to-back homers to score four runs. Fortunately, Soriano had the margin for error and still improved to 7-4 with a 2.96 ERA in what ended up being a 13-5 game. He’ll pitch at home against the Rays next weekend.

Engraving Soriano’s name on to the AL Cy Young Award after his incredible April is looking like a mistake now. He’s walked 22 and allowed 19 earned runs over 33 1/3 innings in his last six starts, five of which turned into Angels losses. This seemed like the perfect opportunity for a rebound, but he instead walked seven against the offense with the second worst walk rate in baseball (only the Giants are worse). Soriano will probably have more good starts than bad going forward, but inconsistency has been a hallmark throughout his career. He’ll face the Dodgers next.

The Tigers jumped all over Soriano early in this one, leading off the bottom of the first with three-straight singles. Dillon Dingler’s single would score Colt Keith from third to give the Tigers their first run of the game, but he would get thrown out trying to take an extra base. Soriano retired the next two batters of the inning to escape further damage, but gave up a leadoff homer to Spencer Torkelson in the second inning to put his team in a 2-0 deficit early. He would make it through the third and fourth innings without any issue, but ran into a jam in the fifth inning. After retiring the first two batters of the frame, Soriano would walk Kevin McGonigle and Dingler, with McGonigle coming around to score on an RBI single by Riley Greene. He would then walk Zach McKinstry to load the bases before striking out Torkelson to end the threat. Soriano struggled with his command, allowing 11 hitters to reach base while also giving up two extra-base hits. He’s come back down to earth after a hot April, but has allowed three or fewer runs in three of his last five starts. He’s scheduled to take the mound next on Monday at home against the Rockies.

After struggling to find the strike zone — that’s a bit of an understatement — and walking six against the Dodgers on Saturday, Soriano was much more effective in that regard Thursday with just one free pass and 68-of-103 pitches landing in the zone. He whiffed seven, and he was able to cause the A’s to swing-and-miss 17 times on 56 attempts. The right-hander has alternated clunkers with solid outings since his impossibly hot start to the season, and now owns a 2.44 ERA for his trouble. He’ll try and repeat this effort against the Tigers on Wednesday in Detroit.

It’s very hard to give up just one hit and give up six runs. It becomes a little easier when you issue six free passes, and two of the runs came on bases-loaded walks. The right-hander’s stuff was exceptional, but it’s hard to be effective when you throw just 48-of-92 pitches for strikes. He still sports a 2.41 ERA even with the struggles, and he’ll try and get back on track versus the A’s on Thursday.