José Soriano survives an early comebacker, tosses five scoreless but exits after 76 pitches

ANAHEIM, June 13, 2026 (Apex Times) - José Soriano turned a jarring first-inning moment into a longer start than his pitch count would later suggest. After a comebacker struck the upper right side of Soriano’s chest near his right shoulder, he recovered quickly enough to finish the inning and keep the Rays off the scoreboard for five straight frames. The outing ended earlier than a full workday, with Soriano exiting after throwing 76 pitches, but not before he delivered the kind of early, steady run the Angels’ staff wants from its mid-rotation arms.

Soriano began his start by walking Yandy Díaz on seven pitches, setting a tense tone for the bottom of the first. On his next sequence, he faced Jonathan Aranda and threw a first-pitch sinker. Aranda lined it back off Soriano’s chest, close to his right shoulder, an impact that can change a pitcher’s mechanics in an instant. According to the Angels’ game report, Soriano shook it off, threw to first to complete the play, and remained in the game after additional warmup pitches.

What followed was a controlled stretch in which Soriano limited damage and kept the game within reach for the Angels. Through five scoreless innings, he did not allow the kind of sustained offensive pressure that typically follows a leadoff free pass. The report characterizes the start as scoreless throughout that span, indicating Soriano, even with an early body scare, maintained enough command and pitch effectiveness to neutralize Tampa Bay’s lineup.

The decision to lift Soriano after 76 pitches likely reflected standard workload management, especially after the first-inning contact. It is also the clearest takeaway from the night’s pitching storyline: the Angels got a full five frames, but they did not push him for a sixth. That matters for teams trying to balance rotation needs with bullpen usage, because a delayed lift can force late-inning relief to cover more hitters than intended.

For the Rays, the first inning became a case study in how one well-timed swing can reach a pitcher’s body even when the overall result is favorable to the pitcher. Aranda’s line drive produced the only notable early “event” in the matchup, and yet Soriano’s recovery prevented it from turning into a rally. From Tampa Bay’s perspective, getting a ball back off the chest should be encouraging as a sign of contact, but it also underscored how quickly a game can swing back when a pitcher responds and keeps the ball down.

In the bigger picture, scoreless starts with a mid-stream exit are often about reliability rather than domination. Soriano’s ability to continue after being hit, then compile five scoreless innings, gives the Angels a boost in confidence for the start-to-start rhythm of their staff. It also gives them an immediate bullpen task, since any time a starter leaves before the sixth, the leverage innings become the bullpen’s responsibility.

What to watch next is how the Angels handle the short-term follow-up from this type of comebacker. With contact to the chest, the early indicators are less about statistics and more about day-to-day readiness, pitch feel, and whether the pitcher maintains his standard mechanics. For Tampa Bay, the next question is whether they can carry the same first-inning swing approach into later at-bats, now that they know Soriano can absorb the impact and continue.

For now, the Rays walked away from the game with contact but without a scoring inning, while the Angels received a key run of pitching stability from Soriano. Even with the earlier-than-expected exit after 76 pitches, the outing still functions as a win for the team-building purpose of pitching depth: weather an awkward first inning and keep the game scoreless long enough for other parts of the roster to decide it.