José Soriano, Zach Neto lead Angels to series victory over Braves

ATLANTA — José Soriano, Zach Neto and the Angels rebounded nicely on Thursday night.

Soriano pitched seven scoreless innings and Neto broke out of his brief slump with three hits in a 5-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves, which helped him bury the memory of Soriano’s nightmare outing last week and the team’s disheartening loss a night earlier.

“I think we’ve shown that all year, that resilience,” interim manager Ray Montgomery said. “The guys give it their 20-30 minutes (to think about the loss) – and me maybe a little longer – and then they bounce back. Everybody came in today, and the attitude is the same. The energy is the same. We go day to day.”

The Angels (43-43) could have swept the Braves if they had held a sixth-inning lead on Wednesday, but they settled for winning the series. They were two outs away from a second shutout when Brock Burke gave up a ninth-inning homer.

Neto led the offense with three hits, including a home run. He had been hitless in his first 13 at-bats after injuring his right shoulder on a head-first slide last week.

Center fielder Jo Adell, who has been on fire for more than a month, had three more hits, including an RBI single. First baseman Nolan Schanuel, who has been consistently productive for about six weeks, hit a two-run homer.

Catcher Logan O’Hoppe showed encouraging signs of shaking out of his slump with two hits, both of which had exit velocities over 108 mph.

Eight of the nine starters – all except for Chad Stevens, in his major league debut – reached by a hit or a walk.

Soriano took care of the rest.

“Really impressive, start to finish,” Montgomery said. “I thought his demeanor, the intent, the control of his body. Obviously, the stuff was really good, right from pitch one. He carried it all the way through the game.”

Soriano has worked at least six innings while allowing one or zero runs in five of his past seven starts. One of the hiccups interrupting that streak was last Friday’s outing against the Washington Nationals, when he allowed eight runs in four innings.

If there was any concern from that performance, Soriano put it to rest with a dominating outing against the Braves.

“I never think about the past,” Soriano said through an interpreter. “So all I do is work hard and keep doing my thing.”

Soriano struck out seven and he walked two. As usual, he got 10 of his 21 outs on the ground, leaving just four in the air.

The Braves did not have multiple runners in any of his seven innings, and they never got a runner to second base.

“I think pretty much all of (the pitches were working),” Soriano said. “The only one I didn’t use much was the slider, but the other ones were working perfectly.”

Montgomery, who has shown a relatively quick hook on his starters early in his tenure, could comfortably let Soriano go because the hitters provided him a cushion.

Neto got things started with a leadoff single, which was his first hit in a week. He was out of the starting lineup for four games, limiting him to pinch-hitting duty, and then he’d gone 0 for 9 in the first two games in Atlanta.

“Just trying to get back into my routine, my regular routine, to get back into the mix of things,” Neto said. “Felt good today. Got back on track, and hopefully do the same thing tomorrow.”

Neto doubled off the center field fence in the second inning and he hit one over the fence in right center in the fourth. He had two more at-bats to try to get the triple he needed to hit for the cycle, but he hit a dribbler to the pitcher and struck out.

Neto also stole a base, sliding feet first. He said he’s going to try to change to that style of sliding, because he’s been hurt twice going head-first.

“I should have taken the base with me,” Neto said. “I think that was my first one. It was weird. It’s still weird. Something I’m gonna, every time I run, I’m gonna have to get used to.”