PITTSBURGH — It took more than a month, but the Angels finally did it.
The Angels beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-4 on Wednesday afternoon, winning their second game in a row and taking the three-game series.
The Angels hadn’t won consecutive games or won a series since they swept the Miami Marlins from April 1-3.
In order to win this one, the Angels (14-23) had to do something else they haven’t been able to do much: String together some offense to take a starting pitcher off the hook.
Right-hander José Soriano worked four scoreless innings before getting into trouble in the fifth. He allowed four runs, three of them on a bases-loaded double when Oneil Cruz hit a pitch below the strike zone into the gap.
It wasn’t as bad an outing as Soriano’s final line would indicate, but he still would have been taken a loss if the Angels hadn’t bounced off the mat to retake the lead quickly.
The first four hitters of the sixth – Taylor Ward, Kevin Pillar, Logan O’Hoppe and Brandon Drury – delivered hits. Willie Calhoun then hit a sacrifice fly to push home the third run of the inning, putting the Angels up 5-4.
Drury’s hit was his second double of the game, which was certainly encouraging for the slumping infielder. However, he then came out of the game with left hamstring tightness. He has had hamstring issues for about four weeks.
After the Angels reclaimed the lead, the bullpen was able to lock it down, retiring all 13 hitters it faced.
Right-hander Adam Cimber finished the fifth and struck out the side in the sixth. Left-hander Matt Moore picked up four outs in the seventh and eighth, with right-hander Luis Garcia getting the next two.
Closer Carlos Estévez pitched the ninth to pick up the save.
Angels pitchers were good all day, with the exception of the hiccup in the fifth.
Soriano started brilliantly, striking out six, walking none and needing just 56 pitches to get through his four scoreless innings.
At that point, the Pirates and their fans were certainly lamenting the fact that they had let Soriano go. The Pirates took him from the Angels in the Rule 5 draft in 2020, after he had Tommy John surgery. The Pirates let him go back to the Angels after he underwent the procedure for a second time in 2021.
Soriano’s success against the Pirates came to abrupt end, though.
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The bottom of the Pirates order was due in the fifth. Soriano retired two of the first three hitters of the inning. Then the lineup turned over and hitters were seeing him for the third time.
Soriano walked Andrew McCutchen and Bryan Reynolds and then Cruz went down and golfed a curveball into the gap in right-center, unloading the bases to put the Pirates up 3-2. Connor Joe followed with an RBI single into right field, ending Soriano’s day.
More to come on this story.