ANAHEIM — Two of the pitchers the Angels hope will eventually get them out of this mess showed their potential on Saturday night.
José Soriano didn’t have his best stuff, and then Ben Joyce clearly did, and they combined for the first seven innings of the Angels’ 2-1 victory over the Seattle Mariners.
Even better for the Angels, they did it on a night that 43,273 were at Angel Stadium, allowing them to see the team’s future while also getting beach towels and watching fireworks.
Soriano, a 25-year-old right-hander in his first season as a starter, has at times been electric this season, although he’s struggled to regain that form ever since missing time with an abdominal infection last month.
He was still shaky in this start, his third since returning, but he got through six innings, allowing just one run.
“He was good,” manager Ron Washington said. “He kept getting traffic on the bags. He bent but he didn’t break.”
Soriano gave up five hits and he walked four, including allowing the first three hitters of the game to reach. Mariners leadoff man J.P. Crawford worked Soriano for an 11-pitch walk to start the game, and three pitches later Soriano allowed two hits and a run.
Soriano escaped that inning with a double play, and after that he continued to weaving his way in and out of trouble.
In the third, he struck out Luke Raley to leave the bases loaded. In the fifth, he got Raley on a grounder, again stranding the bases loaded.
“That just goes to show you that he had something extra when he had to get it,” Washington said Soriano’s two escapes. “We certainly were sitting there with fingers crossed, toes crossed, legs crossed, hoping that he’d get out of it. He did. That’s an experience for him. The more that happens and more you’re able to get out of it, the more you feel like I’m capable of any situation.”
Soriano hit Ty France to start the sixth — his second hit batter of the game — but then he got a double play and a grounder to end the inning with three pitches.
Joyce, a 23-year-old right-hander who has pitched in just 26 big league games, took the mound in the seventh, a night after he threw a 104.5 mph fastball that was the hardest pitch in the majors this season.
Mariners No. 9 hitter Victor Robles greeted Joyce by hitting a 102.6-mph fastball into the gap in right-center, for a leadoff double.
With the tying run in scoring position, Joyce proceeded to strike out Crawford, Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez, the top three hitters in the Seattle order.
He got Crawford on a sinker, Raleigh on a changeup and Rodriguez on a slider. The sinker is the new pitch that has helped Joyce pitch 14-1/3 consecutive scoreless innings. The changeup was another wrinkle to his repertoire. He’s thrown only six of them this season.
“I think it’s another one of those things where the more throw it, the more the more comfortable I feel with it,” Joyce said of the changeup. “Just the few times I’ve thrown it now, it feels great. I feel comfortable throwing it, so I think that’s something I could definitely definitely throw more.”
Washington said that Joyce’s ability to keep hitters off balance with the sinker, slider and now the changeup are much more valuable than lighting up the radar gun with 103 or even 104.
“I’m 72 years old, and if I get a pitch where all I have to do is lift my leg and swing, I’ll get it,” Washington said. “If I have to make an adjustment, I have no chance.”
After the Angels young starters got through the seventh, veterans Luis Garcia and Carlos Estévez — both of whom could be traded by the end of the month — handled the eighth and ninth, respectively. Estévez ran his scoreless streak to 15 innings while converting his 10th straight save opportunity.
They had no margin for error because Seattle’s George Kirby was also sharp.
Both the Angels runs came on a Jo Adell hit in the second inning. Mickey Moniak came home from third, and then Zach Neto also scored when the throw from right field bounced into foul territory.
“Pitching, defense, timely hitting,” Washington said. “That’s what it was. We played a solid ballgame.”
