CLEVELAND — José Soriano demonstrated immediately that he had corrected what was going so horribly the last time he pitched.
One start after Soriano’s control was so bad he didn’t make it out of the second inning, he threw 14 of 17 first-inning pitches for strikes.
It was the encouraging beginning to six scoreless innings in the Angels’ 6-0 victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Friday night.
Soriano, a 25-year-old who was moved to the rotation this year because the Angels wanted to maximize the value of his electric stuff, put all the pieces together for the best of his five major league starts.
Soriano struck out three and walked one, allowing five hits. He needed just 88 pitches – including 60 strikes – to get through six innings.
Soriano now has a 3.77 ERA through 28⅔ innings.
The Angels (12-20) have started so badly that this season is quickly turning into one of assessing the talent for the future.
In that respect, Soriano and a few Angels hitters provided some reasons for hope on Friday night.
Rookie Nolan Schanuel, 22, put the Angels on the board with his third home run of the season. He also singled twice and walked. Schanuel started the season slowly, but he has hit .388 over his last 13 games.
Mickey Moniak, 25, belted a three-run homer to put the Angels up 5-0 in the fourth inning. Moniak, who also singled, started the season poorly at the plate, but Mike Trout’s injury has now put him in position for regular playing time.
Luis Rengifo also had two hits. Logan O’Hoppe drove in a run with a double. Willie Calhoun, who ended up in the cleanup spot because Manager Ron Washington didn’t think his young players were ready for that responsibility, had three hits.
The Angels scored all six runs against Cleveland right-hander Tanner Bibee, a Mission Viejo High and Cal State Fullerton product who brought a 3.45 ERA to the mound.
It was such a good night that they were able to overcome the kind of mental blunder that can be costly.
In the eighth inning, José Suarez got José Ramirez to hit a routine grounder that should have been an inning-ending double play. Shortstop Zach Neto tossed the ball to Rengifo, who stepped on the bag and then started jogging, thinking the inning was over. Suarez walked the next hitter, but then got out of the inning with a fly ball.
More to come on this story.