Jose Soriano has nasty stuff. A knuckle curve that drops like a butterfly that took too many shots and a high 90s splitter that often looks unhittable. On the nights he can actually control them, he’s a great pitcher.
Tonight was one of those nights.
And the consistent pitch was that splitter, which reached 98 MPH.
On the night, Soriano would go 5 and 2/3rds innings on 91 pitches. He allowed 4 runs and a walk, but no runs. He also notched 6 K’s. He might have gone longer, but he took a comeback liner off his calf then allowed the next 2 batters to reach base safely.
Soriano had all the run support he needed before he threw his first pitch. Zach Neto cranked the first pitch of the game over the wall for a 1-0 lead.
Travis d’Arnaud and Taylor Ward were quite an offensive duo tonight. Travis knocked in Ward twice; once in the 4th and once in the 6th. For whatever reason, d’Arnaud seems to just own Texas this year.
Reid Detmers relieved Soriano and got a key strikeout of Kyle Seager to strand two inherited runners. He combined with Luis Garcia to pitch a scoreless 7th. The game was turned over to Brock Burke in the 8th. The Rangers managed a base runner but stranded him at 8th when Burke battled back from a 3-1 count to strike out Wyatt Langford.
Logan O’Hoppe drilled a couple of balls tonight. The last one sailed over the left center wall for a long home run and a 4-0 Angels lead. That was O’Hoppe’s first home run since July 21st.
Kenley Jansen came in and was Kenley Jansen. It wasn’t a save situation, but it was a game the team badly needed. So in a way, it felt like a save situation.
The night definitely belongs to the pitchers, Zach Neto and Taylor Ward both had good nights. Neto added a single and a walk to his home run. Ward went 2 for 2 with 2 walks and scored the aforementioned 2 runs.
