Soriano's brilliance moves into historic territory as he continues to roll

CINCINNATI -- Angels manager Kurt Suzuki had the kind of good feeling before Sunday afternoon’s series finale against the Reds that every manager wants after a tough loss. He had his ace on the mound at the top of his game.

José Soriano continued his overpowering and historic start to 2026, allowing just two hits over seven scoreless innings, while the Angels’ offense scored early and often during a 9-6 win in the rubber game at Great American Ball Park.

“Every five days, you want a guy like that, if you're winning, to keep it going, if you had lost one to kind of stop it and flip it around for us,” Suzuki said before Soriano took the mound and became the first Angels pitcher to win his first four starts since Jered Weaver in 2011. “So, you feel confident every time he's on the mound. That's for sure.”

In 2011, Weaver won his first six starts. The way Soriano threw on Sunday, he certainly looked like he could match that, or better.

Suzuki knew Soriano could provide exactly what the Angels needed after Saturday’s 7-3 loss.

Soriano (4-0) allowed just two hits and struck out 10, while walking three, in lowering his ERA to 0.33. He has been dominant in his four starts this season. The right-hander tossed 106 pitches (69 strikes) on Sunday. In four winning starts, he has allowed just one run over 27 innings, striking out 31 and walking nine.

"I think all my pitches were working today,” Soriano said. “But I think the key for today was I was pounding the zone, attacking the strike zone early.”

With the Angels up, 8-0, Soriano walked Nathaniel Lowe with one out in the seventh. He struck out Spencer Steer for the second out, and then Suzuki went to the mound. Instead of pulling him, he let Soriano face Noelvi Marte.

Soriano admitted he had a message ready for his manager.

“Actually, before he got to the mound, I told him, ‘Hey, let me finish this. Let me finish this [inning]. This is my game. So trust me, I’ll finish this.’”

Suzuki was rewarded for his faith in the ace with a groundout to end the inning and Soriano’s day after 106 pitches.

“As good as he's been, pretty much the whole season, and his attacking secondary stuff was good,” Suzuki said. “It looked like he was so calm and like, just like another day at the park. It was pretty incredible, really. There was no panic, there was no high stress. He looked like he was in control the whole time.”

Soriano held Cincinnati hitless until Matt McLain opened the fourth with a clean ground-ball single to center. P.J. Higgins had the only other hit off Soriano, a two-out single to left in the fifth.

“He kind of came as advertised,” Reds skipper Terry Francona said. “He’s got a 90’s two-seam movement, breaking ball, changeup or split, and he’s four seams once in a while up high. He’s pretty impressive.”

Soriano is the first pitcher since at least 1900 to throw 25+ innings in his first four appearances of a season, while allowing fewer than 10 hits and fewer than two runs.

“I think for him, he takes it day by day,” Suzuki said. “He’s never a guy that stresses about the future or dwells on the past. Every day, he’s the same guy, living in the moment, which is why I think he's really good.”

The Halos earned their first three-game series win vs. Cincinnati since a sweep Aug. 29-31, 2016 at Angel Stadium, and their first road series win since June 12-14, 2007.

Offensively, Mike Trout, Jo Adell, Logan O’Hoppe and Nolan Schanuel each had two hits. Trout doubled, scored twice and reached on a walk.

Trout also escaped serious injury when he took a 93.9 mph foul ball line drive from Jorge Soler off his right elbow while taking a lead off third base in the second inning. Another Angel took a blow in a more sensitive place, when O’Hoppe took a foul tip to the groin off the bat of Lowe in the seventh inning. O’Hoppe remained in the game after spending several minutes on the ground recovering.

The Angels knocked out Reds starter Andrew Abbott two batters into the fourth inning, getting to the lefty for seven runs on eight hits and two walks over his three innings of work. The Halos had two on and two out in the first before Vaughn Grissom, Schanuel and O’Hoppe singled to cap a three-run first. The Angels added two more in the second and the fourth to give Soriano more than enough cushion.