Angels Opening Day takeaways: Soriano deals, offense turns it on late

With the dawn of a new season, hope and optimism flow through players and fans across baseball.

For the Los Angeles Angels, the hope is a bit murky. The playoff drought is now up to 11 years, and the winning record drought has hit a decade, and there aren’t a ton of signs that better days are on the horizon.

The Angels embark on their quest for long-awaited success in Houston to take on the Astros. Right-hander José Soriano was masterful en route to a 3-0 Angels win to kick off the season on Thursday, their first win on Opening Day since 2021.

Here are the main takeaways from the game:

José Soriano Dominated

In the first Opening Day start of his career, Soriano showed why he was deserving of the nod. 

He tossed six innings of shutout ball, striking out seven batters and only allowing two hits. Walks were an issue for only the third inning, but he was untouchable the rest of the way. 

A pair of walks and an intentional walk loaded the bases with two outs in the third inning, but he got Astros shortstop Carlos Correa to fly out to get out of the jam. 

Soriano’s stuff was electric.

The sinker sat at 98 miles per hour and despite only throwing it in the zone 43% of the time, he got a ton of chases on it and it equated to a strike in 77% of his sinkers. Soriano primarily used his sinker against right-handed hitters, getting uncomfortable swings on sinkers coming in on hitters’ hands. 

His fastball was also effective and topped out at 101.3 miles per hour, while being his go-to pitch for strike one against lefties. 

His knuckle curve was also working extremely well, getting seven swings and misses on 11 swings against it (73% whiff rate). 

Offense Was Just Enough

The bats started off ice-cold. 

The Angels didn’t get their first hit until the fourth inning or their first run until the seventh. They were 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position on the day, with five strikeouts. The Angels struck out 14 times total.

But they still managed to work some longer at-bats and chased Astros ace Hunter Brown after only 4 ⅔ innings and 102 pitches.

Angels hitters drew six walks and collected nine hits in total. 

Trout Shows Old-Self

Last season was just the second time in the 2020s that Mike Trout played at least 100 games. He’s no longer the Trout of old, who puts up video game numbers and plays with his hair on fire. 

He’s had to scale back the running on the basepaths and tried playing right field in hopes of staying healthy. 

But on Thursday, Trout looked like the player baseball fans grew accustomed to seeing. Trout walked three times before hitting a towering solo home run in the seventh inning to open the scoring, but more notably, he stole a base. 

It was the first stolen base for Trout since April 15 of last season, and the first game he hit a home run and stole a base since April 7, 2024. It was also the first game Trout played in center field since April 29, 2024. 

Whether or not Trout can stay healthy and return to form remains to be seen. But Trout showed a flash that he still has something in him on Opening Day. 

Schanuel Bat Speed Jump

First baseman Nolan Schanuel is a player with elite plate discipline and good bat-to-ball skills, but his 6-foot-2, 220-pound frame has lacked power so far in his young career.

Schanuel flipped the script on Thursday, going 1-for-5 with a home run and three strikeouts. One-day sample sizes, especially hitting, are tough to draw conclusions from. But one thing that Angels fans should take note of is Schanuel’s uptick in bat speed. 

Heading into last season, Schanuel gained 2.3 miles per hour of bat speed, but his 67.5 miles per hour swing was still the 11th slowest among qualified hitters. 

On his home run on Opening Day, his bat speed was 73.8 miles per hour. A full 6.3 miles per hour faster than last year, and the league average is 71.7 miles per hour.

If his bat speed is truly 70+ miles per hour, that can be huge for Schanuel’s development and will, in theory, help him tap into his power. 

Walbert Ureña Debut

Just a few days after Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said Ureña will be the long reliever in the bullpen, Ureña made his MLB debut in a non-long-relief situation. Ureña took over for Soriano to start the seventh inning, but only lasted four batters before getting pulled. 

He gave up a double to Astros first baseman Christian Walker on the first pitch he threw, but settled in to get a strikeout and a groundout. A four-pitch walk to Astros second baseman Jose Altuve brought up the ever-dangerous Yordan Alvarez, and thus Ureña’s day was done. 

His sinker sat at 98.7 miles per hour and topped out at 99 miles per hour.