CHICAGO — Angels manager Kurt Suzuki saw right-hander José Soriano trot out to the mound at Wrigley Field on a 44-degree night with 15 mph winds and had some tension.
“I was nervous watching him with no sleeves on tonight,” Suzuki said after the Angels’ 2-0 win over the Cubs on Tuesday night. “It was freezing.”
The 27-year-old from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, wanted to try to keep things as normal as possible, despite the frigid temperatures.
The results spoke for themselves.
Soriano threw six shutout innings for the second outing in a row, striking out four while permitting just two hits and two walks. He induced 10 whiffs in the start, and he became the fourth pitcher in Angels history to throw six scoreless innings in each of his first two starts of a season -- joining Nolan Ryan (1978), Ken Hill ('98) and Tyler Anderson (2024)
“[To] be honest, I feel more comfortable without sleeves, so that’s why I took it off,” Soriano said after the win. “You see the results, so I feel more loose. I feel my shoulder is more free to work.
“I think today everything was working, especially because I was pounding the zone. I can throw a lot of strikes. [I] think all of my pitches are in a good place.”
The weather at Wrigley Field was conducive to pitching – Josh Lowe hit a 102.2 mph fly ball to center field in the fifth inning that had a .550 expected batting average, but the wind knocked the ball down well short of the warning track.
The Cubs had a pair of fly balls in the sixth inning – from Michael Busch and Alex Bregman – that looked like they’d carry into the stands on another night, only to safely nestle into the gloves of an Angels outfielder.
“I joked with [left-hander Yusei Kikuchi] after they hit those deep fly balls in the sixth that maybe we should just pitch into their plan and let them hit the ball in the air,” catcher Logan O'Hoppe said. “But there was none of that tonight. I didn’t call any pitch expecting them to put the ball in the air. We just attacked the game plan, stuck to it and did a good job of executing.”
While Cubs starter Jameson Taillon kept the Angels’ bats off the board, too, they were eventually able to get to Chicago’s bullpen in the sixth. Jorge Soler had a leadoff walk, then advanced to third on a Jeimer Candelario double that eluded a diving Pete Crow-Armstrong in center field.
Cubs right-hander Phil Maton picked up two outs, but his 1-2 curveball to O’Hoppe hung enough in the strike zone for the Angels catcher to rip a 104.6 mph ground ball that clipped past Bregman’s glove into left field, plating the two runs.
“The at-bat before, the [fifth-inning] walk, I felt like I found what I was looking for,” O’Hoppe said. “The calmness and the fluidity of my movements, I felt like I was on time again. Kept trust in that, and that’s thanks to a couple of conversations with [hitting coach] Brady [Anderson] in between at-bats. Really helps, so I’m just looking on building that.”
On a frosty evening, two runs were plenty of support, especially with how Soriano has been able to keep hitters off balance this year.
In 2025, the right-hander relied primarily on his sinker (49.1% usage) and knuckle curve (26.7%). This season, while still very early in the year, he’s relied less on his sinker (34.1%) and incorporated his four-seam fastball (25.3%) more. Tuesday, he threw his splitter 16 times (18%) and generated three whiffs on the pitch.
“It was really impressive,” O’Hoppe said. “I think what’s made it so nasty is that he’s using all his pitches now. He can just get by with a sinker and a curveball, but he’s throwing everything now, and it’s been really cool to watch.”