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Soriano their anchor in rough waters
Los Angeles Times
|June 30, 2026
Angels ace embodies tough competitiveness while mentoring younger players during club’s trying season.
José Soriano, the Angels’ 27-year-old starting pitcher who opened the season looking like a potential staff ace, took a 107.4-mph comebacker off his upper chest and shoulder area in the first inning against Tampa Bay on June 13.
He pitched through the injury, putting up five scoreless innings in an eventual 8-0 victory.
When one of his coaches reached out to him that night, asking how he was feeling, the right-hander responded: Did I win the game?
Soriano’s competitive mentality has kept him coming back to baseball despite his injury setbacks.
“He’s a friendly killer,” pitching coach Mike Maddux said. “The nicest guy in the world. I just want to be on his side.”
Soriano’s journey in baseball reads better as a line-item report of how many times the sport has tried to knock him out: a Tommy John surgery in 2020, another in 2021, right arm fatigue and an abdominal infection in 2024 and a right forearm contusion in 2025.
Yet, Soriano started this season on a historic tear, posting the lowest earned-run average (0.24) in a pitcher’s first six starts of a season since earned runs became an official statistic in 1913, according to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs.
This story is from the June 30, 2026 edition of Los Angeles Times.
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