Soriano, Bateman help Blue Jays grind out win over Mariners

TORONTO — One month ago, José Soriano was plying his trade for a team that was destined for yet another last-place finish. Pitching in his fourth season in the big leagues, he’d only ever known the futility of the Los Angeles Angels.

A deadline day trade to the Toronto Blue Jays changed his fortunes, though, thrusting the promising right-hander into his very first playoff push. Given that context, you could argue Saturday afternoon’s contest at Rogers Centre was among the most important starts of his young career.

Soriano certainly met the moment, tossing seven strong innings as the Blue Jays defeated the Seattle Mariners 4-3 in front of a buoyant 41, 512.

Blue Jays fans had plenty to cheer about on a day when the club unveiled its Hall of Excellence and honoured franchise icon Buck Martinez with an induction. The pre-game ceremony included a video tribute, introductions from members of the Hall of Excellence, a rousing speech from Martinez, along with his ceremonial first pitch to Blue Jays manager John Schneider.

When the roughly 45-minute ceremony was over, Soriano stepped onto the mound and make quick work of the Mariners with an eight-pitch first inning. That version of the 27-year-old is exactly what the Blue Jays are working with Soriano to achieve.

Like fellow right-hander Dylan Cease, the organization would like to see him throw more strikes while also being more efficient with his pitches so he can go deeper into games. He did exactly that on Saturday except for a fourth inning in which he briefly lost the zone and issued two walks along with two singles.

Soriano righted himself quickly, though, and in total allowed three runs on five hits over seven innings, walking two and punching out six. He topped out at 98.8 m.p.h. and recorded 10 whiffs while throwing 94 pitches (65 strikes).

His mound work gave the Blue Jays’ offence enough time to figure things out. In the fifth inning, M’s reliever Eduard Bazardo loaded the bases for George Springer, who drew a walk to push across one run. A second came as ball four skipped away from catcher Cal Raleigh and Blue Jays leadoff hitter Brett Bateman alertly read the play to score all the way from the second base.

In the next frame, Bateman added a sharp opposite-field single to tie the game and set up Alejandro Kirk’s go-ahead RBI single to right.