José

Soriano

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.

Soriano’s ERA sits at 1.66 after the dominant performance. The right-hander allowed only one earned run across his first six starts of 2026. He then gave up a combined eight in his last two times out, so Sunday’s outing was a return to his early-season form. He gets a tough matchup at home against the Dodgers next time out, but Soriano remains worth starting.

We knew regression was going to come for Soriano, and unfortunately, it came relatively hard Monday. He allowed a pair of homers — one of them the 14th homer of the season for Munetaka Murakami — and he gave up eight total hits along with three walks. He also did finish with five strikeouts while generating 12 swings and misses and showing quality velocity, so it wasn’t an issue of stuff. He’ll look to get back on track while still holding an outstanding 1.74 ERA versus the Blue Jays in Toronto on Sunday.

Soriano has objectively been as good as any pitcher in baseball, but he wasn’t that version Tuesday. He gave up a pair of homers; a solo homer to Colson Montgomery, and a two-run shot to Drew Romo. The command was an issues throughout, as he threw 57-of-97 pitches for strikes and issued three walks against six strikeouts. With the mediocre outing, Soriano’s ERA triples all the way to 0.84. He’ll look to rebound with a rematch against the White Sox on Monday.

Soriano exited with a 3-0 lead after 84 pitches, but it disappeared in the top of the seventh before the Angels came right back with four in the bottom of the inning. So, no win for Soriano. He did bring his ERA down from 0.28 to 0.24. He settled for four strikeouts, but he generated 16 whiffs. He walked none and gave up just four hard-hit balls. He’ll face the White Sox next week.

Soriano struck out eight. He walked four and threw first-pitch strikes to only 11 of 23 batters, but that didn’t hurt on a night in which he gave up two hits. He’s through five starts having allowed just one run this season, so he’ll take a 0.28 ERA into next week’s outing against the Blue Jays.