PHILADELPHIA -- José Soriano’s first start in a Blue Jays uniform wasn’t as lengthy as they may have hoped for, but the newest member of Toronto’s rotation gave his new team a solid effort against the Phillies.
Soriano allowed two runs (one earned) over 4 2/3 innings in the Blue Jays' 5-4 victory Friday night at Citizens Bank Park, giving up four hits and three walks while striking out three.
“It feels great to help the team win the game,” Soriano said. “That's the point.”
Two of those strikeouts came at the perfect time for the right-hander, who was clinging to a one-run lead in the fifth. After walking Bryson Stott to open the inning, Soriano gave up a double to Justin Crawford, putting both the potential tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with the top of the lineup headed his way.
“I just tried to keep the focus in that moment,” Soriano said. “I tried to do one pitch all the time.”
Soriano got Kyle Schwarber to swing through a knuckle-curve for the first out, then did the same to Trea Turner for the second out, throwing eight knuckle-curves over 10 pitches against the pair. Reliever Mason Fluharty came in to face Bryce Harper, striking him out to preserve the Blue Jays’ lead.
“You see the stuff and you know who you're acquiring, but to kind of see the demeanor and see how they approach certain things, how they are in between innings, kind of see their cadence of the game, is nice,” manager John Schneider said. “For him to kind of not budge right there was really good to see.”
Showing off his five-pitch arsenal, Soriano kept the Phillies off balance for most of his outing, looking at times like the pitcher that dominated through the first month of the season.
Schneider said before the game that he and pitching coach Pete Walker had been talking with Soriano about his approach during their first few days together, delivering a simple message to the 27-year-old: Get in the zone and trust your stuff.
“He’s had a really good year,” Schneider said. “Obviously, the first 40 innings of this year were elite for José, but there are things we've talked about in terms of not being on the edges so much, trying to dominate the 1-1 and 0-0 counts.”
Soriano proved to be a fast learner; he threw first-pitch strikes to 17 of 20 batters, then threw eight of 11 of his 1-1 pitches for strikes, as well.
“For the moment, they just said just to keep it simple,” Soriano said. “Don't change anything for the moment; just try to be simple and do my job.”
Soriano didn’t throw a ball to either of the first two hitters he faced, then found himself in that 1-1 against Harper with two outs in the first inning. He threw a splitter that Harper rolled over for an easy grounder to second.
Soriano worked ahead in the count most of the time in the early innings, though a walk of Brandon Marsh in the second helped lead to the Phillies’ first run thanks to an error by Jesús Sánchez. Schwarber doubled with one out in the third, scoring on Harper’s RBI single, but Soriano managed to limit the damage, giving the Blue Jays’ offense a chance to take the lead in the fourth.
“I thought his stuff was really good,” Schneider said. “It’s just limiting the walks and kind of tightening up the usage of some pitches, but I thought it was really good, and then two huge strikeouts there at the end.”
Schneider pointed to the work Dylan Cease put in with Walker and the coaching staff during Spring Training as a template they can use with Soriano, though he acknowledged the two pitchers have different stuff and personalities. Unlike Cease, who had an entire camp to work out the kinks, Soriano is joining the Blue Jays in the middle of what they hope will be a playoff push, complicating the situation to some extent.
“It has to be a little bit quick and it has to be both ways,” Schneider said. “You have to be pretty receptive to it. You want to let him do what he's comfortable with, but at the same time offer some suggestions as to what we think may make him better. There will be a little bit of back and forth. It's him trusting in that process, right? When you have a pretty good track record for success with guys, I think it's easy for the pitcher to buy into it.”