Kent Bewley's News Story Collection

On Sun, May 10, the Los Angeles Angels played their season series finale against the Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Center. The Jays had defeated the Halos four times already on the season, including in the first two games of this series. After a 14-1 blowout loss the day before, the Angels’ record on the season was 15-25 through their first 40 games. José Soriano was on the mound after a couple of rough starts against the Chicago White Sox pushed down his record to 5-2. Meanwhile, Toronto employed an opener strategy in having young pitcher Spencer Miles start the game while intending to have Eric Lauer serve as the “bulk” pitcher in this game.

The game started off a little bumpy for Soriano, who gave up an infield single to Daulton Varsho in the bottom of the first and a two-out RBI double by the hot-hitting Kazuma Okamoto that gave the Blue Jays an early 1-0 lead. A walk to Jesús Sánchez made things a little tedious for Soriano, but he struck out Lenyn Sosa to end the threat from Toronto. A failed scoring chance for the Halos occurred in the top of the second when they failed to bring Jo Adell in to score after he hit a leadoff double. Very little action occurred on the base paths until the top of the fifth inning when Lauer finally came in to pitch after Miles went three innings and Tommy Nance pitched the top of the fourth.

Nolan Schanuel drew a walk against Lauer that was aided by a successful ABS challenge that overturned strike one into a ball. Oswald Peraza came up to bat and he slammed a 2-0 cutter to deep left center for a two-run shot. The Angels had finally scored multiple runs in this series and finally held a lead over Toronto. But they weren’t done yet as Zach Neto hit a double to left field with two outs and Mike Trout drew a walk on a full count. Vaughn Grissom came up to bat as the third baseman in this game for the Halos and he hit a first pitch changeup to right center that split the gap and both Neto and Trout came around to score. Grissom was tagged out in a rundown as he tried and failed to stretch a two-run double into a triple, but the Angels now held a 4-1 lead over the Blue Jays.

Soriano benefited from that run support by retiring a massive number of Toronto hitters in a row, as he went a career high 20 at-bats in a row without allowing a runner to reach base. The lead grew for the Angels as Adell hit an opposite field homer to right field to grow the lead to 5-1. In the bottom of the eighth, Soriano was still in as his streak came to an end with a single by Myles Straw. With two outs in the inning, Ernie Clement got another hit and Varsho reached on another infield single to load the bases. With Vladimir Guerrero Jr coming up, Kurt Suzuki decided to take Soriano out and bring in Sam Bachman to end this rally for Toronto. Thankfully, Bachman got Guerrero to ground into a force out at third to end the inning and the book was closed on another amazing outing from Soriano.

In the ninth inning, Adell hit another home run to have a three extra base hit performance on Mother’s Day. Jo’s mom Dr. Nicole Adell must have sure been happy to see her 27-year old son have an incredible performance. Ryan Zeferjahn came in to close the game out in the bottom of the ninth and retired the middle of the Blue Jays’ lineup 1-2-3. The Halos had gotten their first road win since Thur, Apr 16 over the New York Yankees in snapping a dreadful eight-game road losing streak. They also got their first win in Toronto since Jul 29, 2023, ending a nine-game losing skid on Canadian soil. Soriano got his sixth win of the season and his ERA remains below 2.00, with him joining a rare list of Halo hurlers who have kept their ERA that low through nine starts to begin a season. Legendary names such as Nolan Ryan, Bill Singer and Jered Weaver and Soriano is among them.

With only a few games separating them from the AL West division leading Athletics, the Angels will continue this tough road trip against the Cleveland Guardians before they return for a ten-game homestand against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the vagabond A’s and Texas Rangers. A good Mother’s Day victory for the Halos can hopefully serve as a trend-turner on the road for them as they inch closer to a stretch where they won’t have to leave the Western United States for the entire month of June.