Soriano Finally Falters As Angels Finally Reveal His Struggles With Neck Stiffness

Soriano Finally Falters As Angels Finally Reveal His Struggles With Neck Stiffness

Los Angeles Angels starter Jose Soriano finally had a problematic outing last night as he gave up three runs in five innings against the Chicago White Sox, and after the game manager Kurt Suzuki revealed that Soriano has been struggling with neck stiffness that helped Chicago earn a 5-2 win over the Halos.

This isn’t exactly surprising. Anyone who’s been watching Soriano carefully--which is just about all of us at this point--could see that the right-hander didn’t look comfortable on the mound, and he's been that way for his last start or two. Last night that caught up with Soriano in a big way as the White Sox played long-ball against him, with Colson Montgomery and Drew Romo doing the damage.

“He battled through it,” Suzuki said in a piece written by Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. “All of his games are good, but tonight I might have been the most proud of him for gutting it out and giving us everything he’s got. I know it didn’t come out on our side, but he took the ball and that’s what aces do.”

Soriano’s velocity has been down a little, and last night wildness crept into the pitching equation when the right-hander had trouble finding the strike zone. He needed 97 pitches to record 15 outs, with just 57 of those for strikes.

“It was tough,” Soriano said. “Every time I tried to look down at home plate, it was tough, and the focus was not the same. But in the end, I just tried to help the team the most I could. And even though we didn’t have the result we wanted, we battled.”