Los Angeles Angels right-hander Jose Soriano can match his career high in wins when he faces the Milwaukee Brewers in the second game of their three-game series on Saturday night in Anaheim, Calif.
Soriano (9-6, 3.29 ERA), rumored to be on the trading block heading into Monday’s trade deadline, won a career-best 10 games last season while also losing 11 games. It will be just his second career start against the Brewers. The first one didn’t go well.
Soriano’s final start of the 2025 season came Sept. 17 at Milwaukee when he was charged with the loss in a 9-2 setback. He allowed three runs on two hits and two walks in just 1 1/3 innings and left after taking a line drive with a 107.4 mph exit velocity by Jake Bauers off his right forearm.
Soriano walked off the field under his own power after that comebacker and X-rays of the arm were negative afterward, but he didn’t pitch again the rest of the season.
Soriano will be sad to see the calendar flip to August after a July that saw him go 1-1 in four starts with a 2.74 ERA. He allowed just 14 hits and seven earned runs in 23 innings with 16 strikeouts and comes in off a 4-3 victory at San Francisco on Sunday where he allowed one unearned run on three hits over five innings while striking out five.
“I thought he was really good today,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said after the game.
Left-hander Robert Gasser (3-4, 4.71), who never has faced the Angels, will try to give Milwaukee the series win. He is 3-1 with a 3.92 ERA in his last seven starts with 33 strikeouts in 39 innings pitched.
Gasser, who was obtained by the Brewers from the San Diego Padres on Aug. 1, 2022, as part of a trade for reliever Josh Hader, comes in off an 8-5 win over the Colorado Rockies on Saturday that saw him allow two runs on five hits in six innings with no walks and four strikeouts.
Milwaukee started a stretch of 17 games in 17 days with a 6-2 victory in Friday’s series opener. Brice Turang and Jake Bauers both homered during a five-run fifth inning, and rookie left-hander Shane Drohan allowed two runs on four hits over six innings to pick up the win.
It was Drohan’s fourth consecutive start of six-plus innings with six-plus strikeouts.
“He was fantastic,” Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy said of Drohan, postgame. “He was in control. This is a tough lineup for him to navigate with all the righties, and he did a great job. This kid has been, I don’t know how many in a row, but this has been probably six or seven in a row that he’s been in the sixth (inning). He’s kept us in every game he’s pitched.”
“Super impressive,” Bauers said of Drohan. “The guy is stone cold. He’s stone cold in the clubhouse, he’s stone cold in the dugout and he’s stone cold on the mound. I don’t know how he does it. It’s a pleasure to watch him pitch and work behind him.”
-Field Level Media
