ANAHEIM — Hours after he was named American League Pitcher of the Month, the honor for Angels right-hander Jose Soriano already had become yesterday’s news.
Soriano was roughed up by the Chicago White Sox for the second consecutive start and the Angels’ woes continued with a 6-0 loss in the series opener on Monday.
Soriano (5-2) gave up season highs of five runs on eight hits with three walks and did it in a season-low four innings. It was far from the form he showed to open the season, although the White Sox did give a hint of what was to come last week.
In an outing last Tuesday in Chicago, Soriano gave up what was then his season high of three runs, while doing it on six hits over five innings. Before facing the White Sox in his past two starts, Soriano had allowed just one run over his first six starts (37⅔ innings).
“It was just one of those days where you can’t control the strike zone and they put good swings on it too,” Soriano said. “They are a pretty good team right now too with very good swings and it was a very good result (for them).”
The Angels might have ended their seven-game losing streak Saturday, but they have now dropped nine of their last 10 and 13 of 15 dating to an April 18 home loss against the San Diego Padres.
Soriano has been powerless to end the downturn, with his first two losses of the season in the span of a week after a 5-0 start.
“It’s a little tough when you face the same team (consecutively) and they already see what you’ve got,” Soriano said. “But we have to continue to battle. I didn’t have the result, but I battled to the end.”
When he lost for the first time this season last week, Soriano was pitching with a stiff neck. It could not have felt much better while turning to watch back-to-back home runs from Munetaka Murakami and Miguel Vargas leave the playing field in his final inning of work on Monday.
“They put some good swings on it, put some good at-bats on him,” Manager Kurt Suzuki said. “I thought the velo was up, stuff was good. Hard to tell from the side, but maybe pitch execution, that’s the only thing that I can see. But he’s been so good for us this year.”
Murakami, who has taken MLB by storm since arriving from Japan this season, is tied with the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge for the league lead in home runs with 14, while his .961 OPS leads all rookies.
Chicago right-hander Davis Martin (5-1) continued his own strong start to the season with seven scoreless innings, allowing five hits with no walks and 10 strikeouts.
Martin lowered his ERA to from 1.95 to 1.64, while Soriano’s climbed from 0.84 to 1.74.
“I think a guy like Sori, whose ball does a lot of things and moves and is nasty, sometimes it is tough to control when it’s moving all over the place,” Suzuki said. “I’m not saying that was the reason for what happened tonight, but it could have been early in the game while (trying) to settle into a groove.”
The Angels’ offense continues to search for answers with Nolan Schanuel supplying their only two extra-base hits on doubles in the fourth and seventh innings. He was left stranded each time, including after his leadoff double in the seventh.
Travis d’Arnaud also had two hits but Zach Neto went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts out of the leadoff spot and has struck out 16 times over his last seven games, even after not going down on strikes Sunday.
Mike Trout went 0 for 4 out of the No. 2 spot of the lineup with two strikeouts and now has gone down on strikes 12 times over the past five games.
The top four spots in the order had nine of the Angels’ 14 strikeouts.
“You look up at the board, that guy had a (low) ERA coming into this game, so it’s not like we were facing some Joe Shmoe,” Suzuki said. “The guy’s a good pitcher and he was on tonight, and they scored runs early to maybe make him a little bit more comfortable. Yeah, it’s no mystery why we’re not scoring, but the work’s there and we just gotta keep grinding.”
It was the first time the Angels were shut out this season, but they have scored two runs or less nine times over the last 15 games.
“It’s a grind, and if it was easy everybody would be doing it, right?” Suzuki said. “So, this is, this is the beauty and the downfall of the game. It’s the grind, it’s not easy, but I think this is what these guys are prepared to do. They go through these stretches and find ways to get out of it.”