Surprised by Soriano's start? His teammates aren't

CHICAGO -- José Soriano has been the best starting pitcher in baseball early this season with a historic showing through his first six starts, and will look to keep it rolling against the White Sox on Tuesday night.

How dominant has Soriano been? The right-hander has allowed just one run through his first six outings for a 0.24 ERA, which is the lowest ERA in a pitcher's first six starts of a season since earned runs became official in both leagues in 1913 (min. 30 IP). He’s also the first starting pitcher in MLB history (excluding openers) to allow one or fewer total runs through his first six starts of a season.

And while his ascent has caught many by surprise -- he came into the season with a 3.89 ERA in 324 career innings -- his teammates believed it was just a matter of time.

“He's got serious stuff,” Nolan Schanuel said. “I feel bad for hitters who have to go face him three or four times in a game. I saw it while standing in there during Spring Training. He's got Wiffle ball. I've never seen a baseball move that much.”

He's a perfect 5-0 with 43 strikeouts and 13 walks in 37 2/3 innings, with his lone run allowed coming on a solo homer from Atlanta’s Drake Baldwin in the first inning of his start on April 6. Other than that, Soriano has a sparkling 0.00 ERA, as he carries a perfect left-on-base percentage of 100 percent and hitters are 0-for-12 against him with runners in scoring position.

Soriano, 27, didn’t have his best stuff in his last outing, but still got through five scoreless innings against the Blue Jays on Wednesday. He exited with a three-run lead but was stuck with a no-decision with the bullpen failing to preserve the lead in an eventual 7-3 win at Angel Stadium.

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

While things have been going great for Soriano, it’s been a rough stretch for the Angels since that start, so they’ll need Soriano to act as a stopper yet again. The club’s victory in his last outing snapped a four-game losing streak and they followed up his win by getting swept in three games in Kansas City over the weekend.

It was an especially rough day on Sunday, as catcher Logan O’Hoppe landed on the 10-day injured list with a minor fracture in his left wrist, while closer Jordan Romano was designated for assignment. The Angels also couldn’t hold a three-run lead in the ninth and a one-run lead in the 10th in a heartbreaking loss to the Royals that again displayed their issues with their bullpen.

So, the hope is Soriano can help turn things around with another stellar start and the good news is that he’s had immense success in two career outings against the White Sox. He has a 0.00 ERA with 10 strikeouts in nine innings against Chicago, including throwing seven scoreless innings against them in his first start of the season in 2025.

The White Sox have also had trouble offensively, as they are tied for 25th in the Majors in runs scored and have the fourth-highest strikeout rate among the 30 clubs. It could lead to a recipe for success for Soriano, but he’ll be pitching to a different catcher for the first time this season after throwing to O’Hoppe for his first six starts.

O’Hoppe joked after Wednesday’s game that using the PitchCom device while catching Soriano is like holding a video game controller with Soriano’s power sinker, knuckle-curveball, splitter and four-seamer all elite pitches.

But he’ll have to hand the controller over to veteran Travis d’Arnaud, who is likely to catch Soriano. Last year, d'Arnaud caught Soriano seven times and he had a 4.29 ERA in those outings.

Soriano’s stuff has improved since last year with his sinker averaging 96.7 mph while getting more break on his offspeed pitches. He’s also throwing his 97.9 mph four-seamer more, which he can elevate to keep hitters off balance as they look for his sinker down in the zone.

“It's disgusting,” d’Arnaud said in spring. “That sinker is real. You can know it's coming and it's still really, really hard to hit. Obviously, his breaking balls are real too. Last year, he learned the split and got really confident with it. He can effectively use his four-seamer because you can tell guys are sitting on sinker to get either a cheap pop-up or swing and miss.”