Just about two hours before the Los Angeles Angels took the field against the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday, Jose Soriano was scratched from his scheduled start due to abdominal pain. There is no indication yet as to whether or not that injury is serious, but it did leave the Angels scrambling. At the time, Zach Plesac — who had been called up to the 26-man roster earlier that day — was expected to be in the bullpen.
But the Angels made a last-second call to swap Plesac into the rotation for the night. In less than 12 hours, Plesac had gone from Triple-A starter to Major League bullpen to the starting pitcher for the Angels. And with such little time to prepare, it wouldn’t have been surprising to see him struggle or be unable to pitch deep into the game.
Instead, the 29-year-old who hadn’t started a MLB game since April 29, 2023 tossed six innings of three-run ball and secured a victory in his Angels debut. He spoke about his mindset heading into the start and the help he got from the Angels’ young star behind the plate, according to Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com:
“I needed to step up for these guys today. My focus was to go out there and give them as many innings as I could,” Plesac said. “[Logan] O’Hoppe was great behind the plate, and I really just followed his lead.”
Plesac gave some insight into the last-minute gameplan that allowed him to have success despite only striking out one batter in six innings of work.
“Hard up and slow down. [It was] really just about changing speeds,” Plesac said. “We didn’t want to throw too many of the same pitches in a row. We didn’t want to fall into a pattern and wanted to keep them guessing.”
The Angels got a surprise performance from their unexpected starter, and all of a sudden they are once again in the midst of a good stretch. L.A. is 5-3 in their last eight and 8-5 in their last 13. And on Tuesday, they have a chance to secure their third series victory in their last five.
No update on Soriano injury
Angels manager Ron Washington did not have any update on Soriano after he was scratched and after the game. However, the issue does not appear to be serious at this time. But if it does wind up being an IL situation, Plesac has shown he can fill in nicely.
