Angels' Jose Soriano seems to have identified his kryptonite after strong rebound start

For most of the season, Los Angeles Angels starter Jose Soriano has looked like one of the best pitchers in baseball. There was even preliminary Cy Young chatter that honestly did not feel out of place. However, after back-to-back rough-ish starts, some began to think that he was crashing back to earth. With his last start seeing him pitch very well again, the answer to why Soriano struggled all of a sudden may be simpler and more confusing than we initially thought.

In his previous two starts combined, Soriano gave up eight earned runs in nine innings of work. He gave up four home runs, walked six batters, and gave up 14 hits. That is a far cry from both what we were seeing out of Soriano as well as what he came with in his last start. Against the Blue Jays over the weekend, Soriano looked to be in peak form, going 7.2 innings and giving up just one earned run while striking out seven batters.

So what gives? What caused Soriano to struggle? Well, there are several possible explanations, but the weirdest one may be that of all teams, the White Sox may just have his number because they are the ones he faced in both of those rough starts.

It's possible that the White Sox are somehow Jose Soriano's Achilles' heel, and that is pretty weird

Now, we aren't saying that the White Sox just owning Soriano is the most likely explanation here. It is absolutely true that Soriano was dealing with a sore neck during that first start, and it is possible that he was still feeling off in the next start before getting healed up. There is also just a chance that his mechanics got a little bit out of whack and he had to tighten things up again. Every pitcher has lulls during the season, after all.

Still, it is kind of weird that Chicago was the team that got to him both times, as they aren't a particularly good team. Sure, they have some dangerous hitters like Munetaka Murakami (who definitely did own Soriano in the second game) and Colson Montgomery, but twice in a row? A quick glance at his previous games against the White Sox doesn't really show any red flags either.

If Soriano continues to go wild the rest of the year, we will look back at those starts and laugh. If Soriano crashed back to earth, then maybe there were some red flags in those starts against Chicago that could have helped to predict them. However, if Soriano keeps pitching well EXCEPT against the White Sox, well, that is just going to be very, very weird.

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