ANAHEIM, Calif. — For reasons unknown, there have been two major struggles for José Soriano this season: home games and the fourth inning.
He overcame both of those hurdles in the Angels’ series opener against the Dodgers on Monday night. Soriano tossed six scoreless innings en route to the Angels’ (57-62) 7-4 win over the Dodgers (68-51).
Heading into Monday night’s affair, Soriano held a 5.56 ERA at Angel Stadium and a 9.00 ERA in the fourth inning in 2025.
Soriano got through the first inning unscathed despite not having his sharpest stuff and falling behind in the count all four at-bats. He settled in after and pitched back-to-back one-two-three innings to get to the dreaded fourth inning.
Tasked with facing the heart of the Dodgers’ order, Soriano got Mookie Betts to ground out, struck out Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy grounded out to first. Will Smith’s single was the only baserunner to reach in the inning, vastly different results than the .376 opponent’s batting average against in the fourth inning heading into the game.
"Honestly, I never pay attention to that," Soriano said through an interpreter. "I just try to keep my head up and keep working hard."
Soriano finished the night going six scoreless innings on two hits and two walks with six strikeouts. He lowers his ERA to 3.84 on the season.
"I thought he was really in command from the beginning, from the get-go, and you saw that, and he gave us a nice, strong outing," interim manager Ray Montgomery said.
It wasn’t nearly as smooth a ride for Dodgers’ starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto. He tied a career-high in walks and allowed six runs on six hits as he failed to make it out of the fifth inning.
The Angels jumped on Yamamoto early, with Zach Neto’s lead-off home run on the first pitch he saw to start the bottom half of the first. It was Neto’s eighth lead-off home run, which is the second most in baseball behind Shohei Ohtani’s 11 and is now the most in franchise history in a single season.
"Knowing you're most likely going to get a first-pitch fastball and first-pitch strike," Neto said helps him succeed at leading off a game. "A pitcher doesn't want to fall behind in the count."
Yoán Moncada also drove in a run on an RBI single after Mike Trout and Taylor Ward both walked.
The Angels blew things open in the fifth by batting around and scoring four runs to chase Yamamoto out of the game. They loaded the bases with nobody out for Trout to deliver a two-run single, Moncada hit another RBI single and Gustavo Campero grounded out to score the fourth run of the inning.
The following inning, Neto hit a line drive over the center field fence for his second homer of the game and first multi-homer game of the season.
"It's definitely more of an edge when we play another team we know we have to play our best game, our best brand of baseball, and it showed out today," Neto said.
The Dodgers made things interesting in the eighth inning by putting up four runs of their own with a solo shot by Ohtani and a three-run homer by Muncy to cut the lead to three.
To make matters worse for the Angels, Campero had to be carted off the field after hurting his left leg trying to rob Muncy’s home run. Mongtomery said after the game that they're still doing tests on Campero and will not have an update until the next day.
Montgomery also announced that Victor Mederos will be the starting pitcher in Tuesday night's game, replacing Tyler Anderson, who is experiencing back stiffness.
Mederos has pitched four innings in relief with the Angels this year and has a 3.39 ERA in 16 starts in Triple-A Salt Lake.