José Soriano continues sizzling start and Angels rally to beat Blue Jays

ANAHEIM — As the Angels search for new ways to describe what José Soriano has done to start the season, they’ve reverted to childhood.

“The PitchCom, it feels like a video game controller,” catcher Logan O’Hoppe said after handling another five scoreless innings from Soriano in the Angels’ 7-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday afternoon.

First baseman Nolan Schanuel said Soriano “has got Wiffle Ball stuff. I’ve never seen a ball move so much.”

Even though the Blue Jays actually nicked Soriano for a season-high seven hits and ratcheted up his pitch count enough for Manager Kurt Suzuki to pull him earlier than he had in any other start this year, he continued his historic start to the season.

Soriano has an 0.24 ERA. Since 1900, Soriano is the first traditional starter – not an opener – to allow one or fewer runs through his first six starts of a season. The Angels (12-14) have won all of his starts, accounting for half their victories.

Soriano has given up one run in 37⅔ innings, with 43 strikeouts and 13 walks.

“I feel great,” Soriano said. “My stuff is working well, so I’m trying to keep that.”

Soriano has allowed only 18 hits, and seven of them came on Wednesday. He hadn’t allowed more than three in any previous game. He’d also gotten into the sixth inning or deeper in all of his other starts.

“Sori was pretty good today, man,” Suzuki said. “They’re a good team over there. They put the ball in play. They battle. They’re getting their hits that way. But for the most part, he was limiting hard contact. A lot of soft contact for him today. So that was a good day for him.”

On Wednesday, the Blue Jays put their leadoff man on base in four of his five innings, and the second hitter on base in the other. Soriano threw almost all of his pitches with someone on base. His velocity was also down slightly, across the board. Soriano was also making his second straight start with the minimum of four days of rest.

All of that made it reasonable to pull him after 84 pitches.

“We’ve got to try to protect him too,” Suzuki said. “He’s been working and stretching out pretty deep in the games. And 12:00 start, we felt like that was a good time, five innings. It’s a good time to get him out of there and not overextend him.”

Soriano said he understood.

“I was feeling good, but they are trying to protect me, because I’ve been throwing a lot of pitches in all those outings,” said Soriano, who is likely to get an extra day of rest before he starts next week in Chicago.

When Suzuki took Soriano out, the Angels had a 3-0 lead, built on Schanuel’s first home run since March 28 and Mike Trout’s first homer at home all season. He’s hit seven on the road.

The bullpen couldn’t hold it, though, costing Soriano a victory.

Right-hander Ryan Zeferjahn got through the sixth but returned to the mound in the seventh. He issued a one-out walk and gave up a double. Chase Silseth got a ground ball, pushing home one run. He then allowed two straight hits, tying the score at 3-3.

But in the bottom of the seventh, the Angels got all of those runs back.

Trout walked and Jo Adell singled. With two outs, Yoán Moncada drew a walk to load the bases for Schanuel.

Schanuel lifted a fly ball down the left field line. It dropped for a double, with all three runs scoring.

It was redemption for Schanuel a day after he hit into a game-ending double play when the Angels had the tying run in scoring position.

“It’s one of the best feelings in the world, going out there, looking at the dugout and seeing the boys jump around and knowing that you were a key aspect to a good win,” Schanuel said. “It’s just a little weight off the shoulders and being able to step up after a tough loss last night and me having the opportunity late in the game and kind of reversing the role. It was a good feeling.”

Schanuel then came around to score on Bryce Teodosio’s bloop single.

Schanuel had seen his average drop to .200 on the last trip. While seemingly everyone else on the team was on fire, he was cold. On the homestand, it’s been reversed. Schanuel has hit .364 with a .991 OPS in the last six games.

“I mean couldn’t help but be happy for him,” Suzuki said. “I feel what he’s going through. I know a lot of guys in there feel what he’s going through, but he keeps coming to the park with the same attitude, same mentality of wanting to help the team win. And for him to come into a big situation – the homer too, lefty-on-lefty homer – and then the bases-clearing double down the line. Phenomenal. I couldn’t be happier for him.”