SEATTLE — The good news was that José Soriano rallied to pitch well after two shaky starts. The bad news was that these are the Angels in 2026, when good news doesn’t seem to last very long.
Soriano was dominant at times through his first five innings Tuesday night, but a bullpen implosion led to an 8-3 loss to the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park.
Soriano entered the sixth inning looking as good as he has in weeks after giving up nine runs (eight earned) on 12 hits in his last eight innings over his previous two outings. He only allowed three singles, only two runners reached second base, and he struck out nine, including a punchout of the side in the second.
But with his pitch count piling up, he surrendered consecutive singles to Julio Rodríguez, Josh Naylor and Randy Arozarena, the third one an RBI hit that gave Seattle a 1-0 lead.
Reliever Chase Silseth was called upon to stop the bleeding, but things went sideways in a hurry. Silseth appeared to have struck out Cal Raleigh looking on a full count, but Raleigh challenged the called third strike by home plate umpire Nestor Ceja and it was overturned for a walk that loaded the bases.
Cole Young followed with an RBI single and Silseth then uncorked a wild pitch that scored the Mariners’ third run. Silseth righted the ship by striking out Colt Emerson and Victor Robles, but he allowed a two-run single to Weston Wilson that stretched the Mariners’ lead to 5-0.
The Angels scored three runs in the top of the seventh, getting singles from Wade Meckler and Josh Lowe to chase Mariners starter Bryan Woo and then greeting reliever Eduard Bazardo with a Logan O’Hoppe RBI single and a two-run base hit by Zach Neto.
It was the first sign of offensive momentum for the team after Woo had stifled them for the first six innings, limiting them to two singles.
But that momentum disappeared right away in the eighth when reliever Brent Suter loaded the bases on a Rodríguez single, an Arozarena double and a two-out walk to Young before Emerson singled in two runs and Victor Robles singled in another.
The Angels went hitless for the last two innings against Seattle relievers Michael Rucker and Andrés Muñoz.
More to come on this story.