José Soriano, young hitters lead the way in Angels’ victory over Guardians

CLEVELAND — José Soriano had only three strikeouts in the six innings he pitched in the Angels’ 6-0 victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Friday night, but two of them were particularly memorable.

In the second inning, with the game still scoreless, the Angels had just made an error to put a runner into scoring position. Soriano struck out Gabriel Arias swinging at three consecutive knuckle curves, ending the inning.

In the fifth, with the bases loaded and two outs, Soriano struck out Andres Gimenez on three pitches, getting him looking at a sinker and a splitter and then whiffing him on a knuckle curve.

“He’s gross,” Angels center fielder Mickey Moniak said. “If you throw 100 and have a curveball like that, the sky’s the limit. It was fun to watch.”

The 25-year-old Soriano is still growing into his new role as a starter, evident by the hiccups from his previous outing, when he couldn’t find the strike zone and got knocked out in the second inning. This time he was in control from the start, with 14 strikes in 17 first-inning pitches.

Soriano gave up five hits and he walked one. He needed just 88 pitches – including 60 strikes – to get through his outing. It was clearly the best of his five major league starts.

“I thought he was in control,” Manager Ron Washington said. “He was spotting his fastball. He was getting the secondary stuff across. When he got in trouble, he made pitches. That’s what he’s capable of doing. I’m very happy for him. He’s been working hard and finally put one together.”

Soriano now has a 3.77 ERA through 28⅔ innings.

“It means a lot to me because I started my career as a starter (in the minors), and all I want to do is win games as a starter,” Soriano said through an interpreter.

Soriano’s performance was the best of a few bright spots from Angels young players, giving some reason for optimism for a team that started the season with a 12-20 record.

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.

Moniak, 25, belted a three-run homer to extend the Angels’ lead to 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.

“I’ve been taking strides in the right direction as far as my swing goes,” Moniak said. “I’ve been feeling pretty confident in the direction it’s going. To be able to have the results today was good to see.”

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 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.

“You don’t like those kinds of lapses, but you’ve been in the game long enough, it happens,” Washington said. “I certainly hope he learned from that and doesn’t let that happen again, because it cost Suarez 11 more pitches. Also caused us to get someone up in the bullpen.”