padres

For a 20-year-old Eric Lauer, fresh out of Kent State University in 2016, talking pitching with Mark Prior made the big leagues feel closer.

“We were so young,” Lauer said in a conversation with The Times, “that it was kind of funny, because everybody was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s Mark Prior.’ ”

Prior, the beloved former Cubs All-Star, finished third in NL Cy Young voting when Lauer was 8 years old.

“He was one of the first experiences I had where I was like, ‘OK, like, these elite big leaguers are just normal guys. They’re just like us.’ ”

Prior was a “high-level thinker,” as Lauer put it, who steered Lauer toward in-depth self-evaluation. But he also was just “a normal dude.”

The two have reunited with the Dodgers. Lauer — who held the Rockies to one run and four hits in his six-inning Dodgers debut Tuesday — was a midseason addition as injuries thinned the team’s starting pitching depth. Prior has been on the Dodgers’ coaching staff since 2018, serving as the pitching coach since the 2020 season.

But when they first met, Lauer was a Padres 2016 first-round draft pick and Prior was the minor-league pitching coordinator.

“He’s always been an uber-competitor, obviously pitched off his fastball, sneaky,” Prior said. “And then I saw him, obviously, when he got called up with the Padres. And he’s pitched well against us at various times, and it’s been a really good career together.”

When they connected last week — at the Padres’ Petco Park, as fate and the Dodgers’ schedule would have it — they had a whole range of career phases to catch up on.

Lauer has gone through delivery adjustments and career leaps. He debuted with the Padres in 2018, was traded to the Brewers ahead of 2020, revived his career with a 2024 stint in Korea, returned to MLB and won the American League pennant with the Blue Jays.

“I would say I’m much more mature now,” Lauer said. “But as a pitcher, I’ve gone through mechanical changes, arm action changes. And [Prior] knew me when I was really, really long.”

On their first day back in the same organization, Lauer said to Prior: “I’m not comping with [Madison] Bumgarner anymore.”

Bumgarner famously would reach way back at the beginning of his motion. Lauer at one time had a similar arm path.

“I used to be really, really long,” Lauer said, “and then I got really, really short, and now I’m kind of in between. And so we just talked about that, and what caused that, and what the process was to do all that, and then kind of where I want to be now.”

They landed on shorter arm action, but the trick will be syncing that up with the lower half of his delivery. And the Dodgers have dug into his pitch usage and arsenal.

“I haven’t been involved in Lauer’s path for eight years, so I don’t know all the iterations,” Prior said. “… But at least there’s a relationship there to some degree, it’s a friendly face.”

That was one of Lauer’s first thoughts when he found out the Dodgers had traded for him after the Blue Jays designated him for assignment.

“I was like, ‘Oh shoot, Prior’s the pitching coach there,’” Lauer recounted. “I know this guy, I can talk to him right away, it’s not somebody that I have to learn how they operate. … It was nice to [have a] full-circle moment and just happened to be in San Diego.”

Lauer had climbed through the Padres’ system, with Prior overseeing the minor-league pitching department, as part of a group that would inspire the “hot talent-lava” motto — a phrase originally coined by baseball superagent Scott Boras. Though Lauer’s career has taken twists and turns since, those were formative years.

“They taught us that you’re never done really learning to pitch,” Lauer said. “It’s a constant adjustment. As you get older, you have to change some things, and you have to tweak some things when your body doesn’t move the same as when you’re 21 compared to 28. So that idea stuck with me throughout.”

It’s been clear in Lauer’s short time with the Dodgers that he’s still evolving.

The former Toronto Blue Jay, who shoved against the Dodgers in the World Series, warmed up on the Dodger Stadium mound to “squabble up” by Kendrick Lamar, a Compton native who famously torched Toronto native Drake in their 2024 feud.

After a clean first inning with two strikeouts, Lauer missed down the middle with a fastball to Hunter Goodman, who hit it out for the 12th homer Lauer has given up this season.

On a night littered with Dodgers home runs, however, that was the only run Lauer gave up, as he mowed down the Rockies for the next four innings.

Dodgers beat the Padres

From Maddie Lee: The crack of the bat reverberated throughout Petco Park. The crowd let out a collective, “Oh.” And Shohei Ohtani started his trot around the bases.

Padres center fielder Jackson Merrill made a valiant effort to bring back the home run. But after leaping and stretching his torso over the top of the wall, the ball fell just out of his reach.

Ohtani, hitting while pitching for the first time in almost four weeks, had homered on the first pitch of the game. Then, helping the Dodgers to a 4-0 win and series victory against the Padres on Wednesday, Ohtani threw five shutout innings and gave up just three hits.

“The goal as a pitcher is to not give up the first run,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “So I was able to not do that and happy that we were able to score first.”

He lowered his ERA to 0.73, which is the best mark of any pitcher who has started a game this season. It’s also the sixth-lowest ERA through the first eight starts of a season (excluding openers) that a pitcher has recorded in the live-ball era (since 1920), according to MLB.com. Fernando Valenzuela, with an 0.50 ERA through eight starts in 1981, leads the pack.

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Shaikin: From the Big Apple, sour grapes toward the voice of the Dodgers

Dodgers box score

MLB standings

Angels lose to the Athletics

Jeff McNeil hit a tying homer in the ninth inning and Tyler Soderstrom had an RBI single in the 10th to rally the Athletics past the Angels 6-5 on Wednesday night.

The Angels loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the 10th but left-hander Hogan Harris got Jorge Soler to ground out, sending the Angels to their 23rd loss in 29 games.

A’s reliever Scott Barlow (1-0) threw a scoreless ninth for the win. Angels right-hander Chase Silseth (1-1) took the loss after giving up an unearned run in the 10th.

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Angels box score

MLB standings

UCLA men’s basketball adds four players

Forwards Filip Jovic of Auburn and Sergej Macura of Mississippi State as well as guards Jaylen Petty of Texas Tech and Azavier Robinson of Butler have joined UCLA through the transfer portal, coach Mick Cronin said Wednesday.

Jovic averaged 6.3 points and 4.0 rebounds in all 37 games for Auburn last season, helping the Tigers win the NIT title. Macura averaged 5.0 points and 4.8 rebounds in 28 games for Mississippi State last season.

Petty averaged 9.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 33 games as a freshman at Texas Tech. Robinson averaged 6.1 points, 1.9 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 22 games as a freshman at Butler.

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This day in sports history

1881 — A small group of tennis club members meets at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City to form the world’s first national governing body for tennis: the United States National Lawn Tennis Assn. The new organization is created to standardize tennis rules and regulations and to encourage and develop the sport.

1891 — Australian boxer Peter Jackson and future world heavyweight champion Jim Corbett fight a No Contest in 61 rounds at California Athletic Club, San Francisco.

1932 — 1st Curtis Cup for Women’s team amateur golf: U.S. wins, 5½-3½ at Wentworth Club (Wentworth, England).

1966 — Muhammad Ali TKOs Henry Cooper in six for heavyweight boxing title.

1966 — Kauai King, the Kentucky Derby winner ridden by Don Brumfield, wins the Preakness Stakes by 1 3/4 lengths over Stupendous.

1971 — Chelsea win 11th European Cup Winner’s Cup against Real Madrid 2-1 in Athens (replay).

1977 — Heavily favored Seattle Slew, ridden by Jean Cruguet, wins the Preakness Stakes by 1 1/2 lengths over Iron Constitution, a 31-1 shot.

1979 — The Montreal Canadiens win their 21st Stanley Cup by beating the New York Rangers 4-1 in Game 5.

1981 — The New York Islanders win the Stanley Cup in five games with a 5-1 triumph over the Minnesota North Stars.

1988 — Risen Star, ridden by Eddie Delahoussaye, spoils Winning Colors’ bid to become the first filly to win the Triple Crown by capturing the Preakness Stakes.

1989 — LPGA Championship Women’s Golf, Jack Nicklaus GC: Nancy Lopez wins for the third time, by three strokes over Ayako Okamoto of Japan.

1995 — The Penske Racing Team is shut out of the 33-car Indianapolis 500 field when two-time winners Al Unser Jr. and Emerson Fittipaldi fail to qualify. Unser is the first Indianapolis 500 winner to fail to qualify the next year.

2005 — Afleet Alex, ridden by Jeremy Rose, regains his footing and his drive after being cut off by Scrappy T in a frightening collision and breezes home to win the Preakness Stakes. Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo finishes third.

2005 — English FA Cup Final, Millennium Stadium, Cardiff (71,876): Arsenal beats Manchester United, 5-4 on penalties after 0–0 (a.e.t.); Gunners’ 10th title.

2006 — Detroit holds Cleveland to the lowest point total in a Game 7 in NBA history and advances to its fourth straight Eastern Conference final with a 79-61 win over the Cavaliers.

2006 — The Swedish ice hockey team Tre Kronor takes gold in the World Championship, becoming the first nation to hold both the World and Olympic titles separately in the same year.

2008 — UEFA Champions League Final, Moscow: Manchester United beats Chelsea, 6-5 on penalties after scores tied at 1-1 after extra time; first all-English final in the competition’s history.

2009 — Evgeni Malkin scores three goals — two in the third period — for his first NHL playoff hat trick and leads Pittsburgh to a 7-4 win over Carolina and a 2-0 advantage in the NHL Eastern Conference finals. Teammate Sidney Crosby scores the first goal of the game for a record-tying sixth goal to start a playoff game. Bobby Hull of the Blackhawks (1962) and Edmonton’s Fernando Pisani in 2006 also had six game-opening goals in a playoff year.

2011 — Shackleford wins the Preakness, holding off a late charge from Animal Kingdom to win as a 12-1 underdog. Ridden by Jesus Lopez Castanon and trained by Dale Romans, Shackleford wins by three-quarters of a length in 1:56.21.

2011 — Bernard Hopkins, at age 46, becomes the oldest fighter to win a major world championship, taking the WBC light-heavyweight title from Jean Pascal in Montreal. He takes the WBC, IBO and The Ring magazine titles from the 28-year-old Pascal (26-2-1), the Canadian fighter who was making his fifth defense. Hopkins (52-5-2) broke the age record set by George Foreman in a heavyweight title victory over Michael Moorer in 1994.

2016 — English FA Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London: Manchester United beats Crystal Palace, 2-1 (a.e.t.); Jesse Lingard scores 110′ winner.

2016 — On same card, American boxer Jermell Charlo KOs John Jackson in 8th to claim vacant WBC super welterweight title, and Jermall Charlo beats Austin Trout on points to retain IBF version; first twins to hold world championships in same weight division.

2017 — The Tradition Senior Men’s Golf, Greystone G&CC: Defending champion Berhard Langer wins by five strokes over Scott Parel and Scott McCarron.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1926 — Earl Sheely of the Chicago White Sox hit three doubles and a home run against the Boston Red Sox. Sheely doubled in each of his last three at-bats the previous day to give him seven consecutive extra-base hits, tying a major league record. The six doubles in the two games also tied a major league record.

1930 — Babe Ruth hits three consecutive home runs in the first game of a doubleheader against the A’s.

1943 — In the fastest nine-inning night game in American League history, the Chicago White Sox beat the Washington Senators 1-0, in 1 hour, 29 minutes.

1948 — Joe DiMaggio had two home runs, a triple, double and single to lead the New York Yankees to a 13-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

1952 — Duke Snider’s home run highlighted a 15-run first inning in the Dodgers’ 19-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds in Brooklyn. Snider, Pee Wee Reese and Billy Cox each made three plate appearances in the first inning.

1986 — Rafael Ramirez of Atlanta had four doubles in seven at-bats as the Braves beat the Chicago Cubs 9-8 in 13 innings.

1996 — Larry Walker drove in a career-high six runs, hitting a pair of two-run homers, a triple and a double in the Colorado Rockies’ 12-10 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. His 13 total bases set a club record.

1996 — At Fenway Park, Seattle pounds out 19 hits to beat Boston, 13-7. Ken Griffey, Jr. becomes the 7th-youngest player to collect 200 homers when he connects in the M’s six-run 4th inning. Jay Buhner hits a two-run shot in the inning, the 5th game in a row he’s connected, and Edgar Martinez adds four hits in the game.

1997 — Roger Clemens earned his 200th victory, leading the Toronto Blue Jays to a 4-1 win over the New York Yankees.

2000 — For the first time in baseball history, there were six grand slams in a single day. Garret Anderson of the Angels hit the record-breaker off Kansas City’s Chris Fussell. J.T. Snow of San Francisco, Brian Hunter of Philadelphia, Jason Giambi of Oakland, and Adrian Beltre and Shawn Green of the Dodgers connected with the bases loaded before Anderson. The old mark of five was set in 1999.

2002 — The Diamondbacks set down the Giants, 9-4, behind Randy Johnson. Johnson notches the 3,500th strikeout of his big league career in the contest.

2004 — In his return to Texas, Alex Rodriguez is roundly booed by fans at the Ballpark in Arlington. The fans continue to show their displeasure as the Yankees third baseman drives a 2-1 pitch over the fence during his 1st-inning at-bat.

2004 — Jose Cruz Jr. went 4-for-4 with a homer and three doubles, leading Tampa Bay to a 5-3 victory over Cleveland.

2005 — The Texas Rangers set two club records in an 18-3 rout of the Houston Astros. Texas got home runs from Rod Barajas, Hank Blalock, Laynce Nix and Mark Teixeira in an eight-run, four-homer second inning. Texas slugged a team-record eight homers total on the day, also receiving blasts from Kevin Mench, Richard Hidalgo and two from David Dellucci.

2009 — Albert Pujols of St. Louis hit a homer in the first inning that knocked out the “I” on the Big Mac Land sign located in Busch Stadium’s left field. The Cardinals won 3-1.

2009 — Joe Mauer hit a grand slam, two doubles and drove in a career-high six runs as Minnesota routed the Chicago White Sox 20-1.

2010 — Dan Haren doubled twice, drove in three runs and pitched eight strong innings, offsetting Edwin Encarnacion’s three home runs for Toronto, and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Blue Jays 8-6. Haren gave up four runs and nine hits and two of Encarnacion’s three homers.

2013 — Mike Trout hit for the cycle and drove in five runs to lead the Angels in a 12-0 rout of Seattle Mariners.

2015 — The Brewers’ Will Smith is ejected for having rosin and sunscreen on his forearm in the 7th inning of Milwaukee’s 10-1 loss to the Braves. Smith explains that he simply forgot to wipe off his arm before leaving the bullpen when called into the game. He will receive an eight-game suspension as well.

2018 — Baseball has a new phenom as 19-year-old Juan Soto of the Nationals, making his first start ever in the outfield after striking out as a pinch-hitter in his debut the day before, crushes the first pitch he sees from Robbie Erlin of the Padres for a three-run homer. He goes 2-for-4 in 10-2 win by Washington. He is the first teenager to homer since teammate Bryce Harper did so in his rookie year in 2012.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

SAN DIEGO — The crack of the bat reverberated throughout Petco Park. The crowd let out a collective, “Oh.” And Shohei Ohtani started his trot around the bases.

Padres center fielder Jackson Merrill made a valiant effort to bring back the home run. But after leaping and stretching his entire torso over the top of the wall, the ball fell just out of his reach.

Ohtani, hitting while pitching for the first time in almost four weeks, had homered on the first pitch of the game.

Manager Dave Roberts has held Ohtani out of the batting order for each of his last three starts on the mound, in what’s become a start-by-start decision. But Wednesday, he handled pitching and hitting duties, with immediate positive feedback.

“Obviously it’s a big series, and with the way he’s swinging the bat, I feel it gives us the best chance to win,” Roberts said before the game. “And last week, giving him a couple days off to reset, I thought that was beneficial. We’re on the heels of an off day [Thursday]. So I think all that in total, it just made sense to have him hit today.”

Roberts has also witnessed a “recharged” Ohtani on this trip, as evident on the basepaths and in the batter’s box.

Roberts and Ohtani differ in how much they credit his offensive turnaround to the two-day break from hitting that Roberts gave the two-way phenom last week, versus the progress he was already showing. But Ohtani entered Wednesday with four doubles and 10 hits total in five games against the Angels and Padres.

“I think he’s getting there,” Roberts said before the game. “I wouldn’t say he’s back; I think he’s getting there.”

SAN DIEGO — The Dodgers entered the late innings Monday in an unenviable position: trailing the Padres, whose biggest strength is their bullpen.

“When they have a lead they don’t relinquish it too often,” manager Dave Roberts said after the Dodgers’ 1-0 loss Monday. “You know the numbers — when they’re ahead in the seventh inning they don’t lose. You do have to be a little more aggressive and capitalize when you do get those chances.”

Including Monday, the Padres are 20-2 when leading after six innings, 21-1 when leading after seven, and they have a perfect 22-0 record when leading after eight.

Even when Padres closer Mason Miller got off to an uncharacteristically wild start in the ninth inning Monday, the Dodgers failed to capitalize.

He walked Freddie Freeman and Kyle Tucker on nine pitches. And the next three batters — Will Smith, Max Muncy and Andy Pages — all have proven their ability to do damage in clutch moments.

But it was Miller on the mound, a rare reliever who could actually challenge for the Cy Young Award.

“In this kind of series, you know you’re going to have close games,” Freeman said after the game. “And we just couldn’t get it done.”

Miller got out of the jam with a fly out, strikeout and ground ball, and notched his league-leading 15th save.

Shohei Ohtani dives back to first base in the fourth inning.

(Tony Ding / Ap Photo/tony Ding)

“We still had really good at-bats,” Freeman said. “There’s a silver lining to it. Scoring off Mason is going to be really hard to do. It’s going to take one of those kinds of innings where you can maybe walk a couple of guys and get a bloop. Not much squaring up going on against him.

“But we had an opportunity, maybe with him throwing a lot of pitches might make him be down next game. You just try to have little wins.”

The Dodgers could also avoid him by claiming a lead. On Monday, Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto held the Padres to three hits and one run — Miguel Andujar’s first-inning homer.

But the Dodgers’ offense, which scored 31 runs in a three-game series against the Angels, only managed four hits off Padres starting pitcher Michael King, and only one in the first five innings.

“You’re trying to cover realistically 30 inches,” Freeman said. “Because you have ball-to-strike pitches — you’ve got backdoor sliders that are starting as balls coming back, you’ve got front-door sinkers for lefties. So it’s not just the whole plate you’re worried about; you’re going to worry about a whole lot of different things. … He had all of it working tonight.”

The Dodgers finally strung some hits together in the sixth. With two outs and Hyeseong Kim on first, Shohei Ohtani beat out a swinging bunt, and the throw from Padres catcher Rodolfo Duran zipped past first base.

Kim, who took off from first on contact, rounded third hard but slammed on the brakes when third base coach Dino Ebel held up the stop sign.

“It’s kind of the timing of it, where [Fernando] Tatis [Jr.] came up with the ball, and Dino’s got to make the decision,” Roberts said. “You don’t know that he’s not going to come up with it clean. At that point in time, to be quite honest, Dino had the best view of the runner coming in, Kim, and where they were at on the field. So it’s one of those things, I’m definitely not going to second guess it.”

Kim was stranded there.

Then in the eighth, he again made it to third on a single from Ohtani with two outs. And again, he got stuck 90 feet away from tying the score.

Xander Bogaerts and Bryce Johnson delivered two-out RBIs as the San Diego Padres defeated the Angels 2-1 on Sunday.

Bogaerts broke a scoreless tie with an RBI single in the fourth inning, and Johnson added a two-out RBI single in the seventh as San Diego took two of three games in the series. Johnson finished with two of San Diego’s five hits for his multihit game of the season.

Michael King (3-1) gave up one hit over five scoreless innings, striking out six and walking four while working through traffic. He combined with Ron Marinaccio, Kyle Hart, Bradgley Rodriguez and Mason Miller to hold Los Angeles to two hits.

Miller struck out two in a perfect ninth for his eighth save. He is one inning shy of the longest scoreless streak in Padres history, set by Cla Meredith with 33 2/3 innings in 2006.

The Angels mounted a late threat but couldn’t tie it. Oswald Peraza doubled in the seventh and scored on a sacrifice fly by Zach Neto. But the Angels went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and struck out 11 times.

Walbert Ureña (0-2) made his first career start for the Angels, striking out eight and giving up two runs over six-plus innings. He became the fourth pitcher in franchise history to record at least eight strikeouts in his debut.

Ramón Laureano and Fernando Tatis Jr. each drove in two runs apiece, Germán Márquez threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings in a strong start and the San Diego Padres beat the Angels 4-1 on Saturday night.

Adrian Morejon (2-0) struck out two in 1 1/3 scoreless relief innings for the win and Mason Miller earned his seventh save despite giving up a single and a walk in the ninth.

Miller, who has allowed two hits, walked two and struck out 25 in 10 1/3 innings this season, extended his scoreless streak to 31 2/3 innings dating to last Aug. 6.

The teams were in a scoreless tie when Freddy Fermin and Jake Cronenworth opened the eighth with four-pitch walks off Ryan Zeferjahn (1-1). Laureano chopped an RBI single through the middle for a 1-0 lead, snapping San Diego’s 16-inning scoreless streak. Tatis followed with an RBI hit-and-run dribbler through a vacated second-base spot for a 2-0 lead.

The Angels trimmed the deficit to 2-1 in the bottom of the eighth when Logan O’Hoppe and Adam Frazier singled off Jason Adam and Nolan Schanuel hit a two-out RBI single. But Jo Adell grounded out to end the inning.

San Diego pushed the lead to 4-1 in the ninth on Laureano’s sacrifice fly and Tatis’ RBI single.

Márquez gave up two hits, struck out five — all in the fourth and fifth innings — and walked two.

Angels starter Yusei Kikuchi allowed four hits, struck out eight and walked one in six innings.

Jackson Merrill robbed Yoán Moncada of a solo homer with a leaping catch at the right-center-field wall in the second, holding onto the ball as he collided with Tatis.

The game was twice delayed for several minutes. In the second, O’Hoppe, the Angels’ catcher, took a foul tip off his neck. In the fifth a 96-mph fastball from Kikuchi grazed Cronenworth’s chin. Both players remained in the game.

Up next

Padres RHP Michael King (2-1, 2.78 ERA) will face Angels LHP Reid Detmers (1-1, 3.57 ERA) in Sunday’s series finale.

In just five starts, José Soriano’s season with the Angels has gone from good to great — to historic.

Soriano pitched two-hit ball into the sixth inning of the Angels’ 8-0 victory over the Padres on Friday night, ending San Diego’s eight-game winning streak with yet another dominant outing by the Angels’ right-handed Dominican ace.

Soriano (5-0) has an ERA of 0.28 after allowing just one run in his first 32 2/3 innings this season. He leads the majors with 39 strikeouts while allowing only 11 hits, and he’s tied with Milwaukee’s Aaron Ashby for the lead with five wins.

Except for occasional control problems, Soriano has been overwhelming every lineup he faces — and Drake Baldwin’s first-inning homer for Atlanta on April 6 is still the only run he has allowed all season. His 17-inning scoreless streak is the second-longest in the majors this season, and opponents are batting .104 against his 0.73 WHIP — both the best in baseball.

Angels ace José Soriano delivers to the plate during the fifth inning of a win over the San Diego Padres at Angel Stadium on Friday.

(Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Getty Images)

“It’s like a hot knife through butter,” Angels slugger Jo Adell said. “It’s pretty crazy. It’s really special, and he’s a special talent. He’s always had the stuff to compete at this level, and he’s doing what an ace does. Whatever he’s done, just keep doing it.”

And after five straight dominant starts, Soriano has reached rare company.

The most recent pitcher to allow one earned run or fewer in each of his first five starts in a season with at least 15 total innings pitched was the Dodgers’ Fernando Valenzuela in 1981, when he won the NL Cy Young award in his groundbreaking rookie season. Walter Johnson also did it in 1913 — and nobody else.

Soriano is also the only pitcher in major league history to go at least five innings while yielding one or fewer earned runs and three or fewer hits in each of his first five starts to a season.

“I just feel confident to keep pitching like that,” Soriano said. “I believe in my catcher, and we’re on the same page. I think that’s a big part of the results we’re having.”

While Soriano dazzled his previous two opponents with back-to-back, 10-strikeout outings over 15 combined innings to win the AL Player of the Week award, he actually didn’t overwhelm the Padres’ veteran lineup.

San Diego drew four walks and forced Soriano to throw 99 pitches. The Padres loaded the bases in the third before Soriano got Jackson Merrill to ground out, but San Diego eventually chased him with a single and a walk with two outs in the sixth.

“The thing that impressed was that to us, he had to grind a little bit tonight,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. “I think that’s the maturity showing up, where he’s learning how to pitch — and I say this lightly — without his best stuff. He learned how to navigate a great lineup over there without his best stuff … and it was pretty incredible. You can’t say enough.”

Soriano has a 99-mph fastball and a sinker that ranks among the best in baseball, but he’s also mixing in a curve that has flummoxed his opponents. The combination has been too much for any opponent through his first five starts.

“Knowing him from the past, you always thought of the high-90s sinker, and then he comes in breaking out the curveball,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “That pitch was very impressive from the dugout. Gave our guys trouble at the beginning. It’s really hard to lay off that pitch, and it complements his sinker. He did a great job tonight mixing his pitches. … He’s just a really good pitcher.”

I’d heard Arte Moreno had told people recently that he thought the Angels could command $4 billion. He might sell the team. He might not. But the figure seemed ambitious, since no major league team ever had sold for even $3 billion.

Until Friday, that is, when the Wall Street Journal first reported the San Diego Padres were about to be sold for $3.9 billion.

The new owners: a group led by Jose Feliciano of Santa Monica-based Clearlake Capital, which manages more than $90 billion in assets, and his wife, Kwanza Jones. In 2022, Feliciano and Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly led the investment group that bought Chelsea of the Premier League for $5.2 billion.

The new money should enable the Padres to build upon the legacy of late owner Peter Seidler, who simply disregarded the fact that San Diego ranks as one of the smallest media markets in the major leagues. He spent to win, and the Padres have made the playoffs four times in the past six years — after making the playoffs five times in their first 51 years.

The fans rewarded him, packing Petco Park. As of Friday, the Padres had the second-best record and second-highest attendance in the major leagues. The Dodgers, of course, had the best record and the highest attendance.

The party most immediately interested in the Padres’ sale price? The players’ union, since Commissioner Rob Manfred has cited sluggish appreciation in sale prices as one reason to pursue cost controls on player salaries, whether through a salary cap or some other restriction. In recent years, the owners of the Angels, Minnesota Twins and Washington Nationals all have put their teams on the market without completing a sale.

But Moreno should be interested, too. He turns 80 this summer.

The comparison with the Padres only goes so far. In San Diego, in a city without a team in the NFL, NBA or NHL, the Padres are virtually unchallenged for dollars from fans and corporate sponsors.

And, in San Diego, the Padres play in Southern California’s best ballpark, one the team has turned into a year-round events center, with major concerts in the stadium itself and smaller ones within a delightful park beyond center field.

Could Moreno get $4 billion without a resolution to the long-running ballpark stalemate in Anaheim? It sounds borderline insane to consider that the only available team in America’s second-largest market might not be worth as much as the team that just sold in America’s 30th-largest market.

In Anaheim, however, two deals that would have anchored the Angels there for decades collapsed, and the 60-year-old stadium is in serious need of renovation or replacement. A buyer likely would have to account for the billion-dollar cost of a new ballpark and might ask for a credit against the purchase price, effectively lowering how much profit Moreno could make on the sale.

Any potential buyer should be keeping a close eye on a bill slowly winding its way through the state legislature this year. That bill, if enacted into law, would give the city the ability to loosen development restrictions on the stadium property for a team owner willing to call the team the Anaheim Angels.

Still, even without that legal assist, there should be no shortage of parties interested in acquiring two rarely available assets in one transaction: an MLB team in the Los Angeles market, and a 150-acre site perfect for the mixed-use development coveted by owners in every sport these days.

Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob, who once worked as a peanut vendor at Angel Stadium, lost out in the Padres’ bidding and could take another run at the Angels.

Rams owner Stan Kroenke, who lost out in the Dodgers’ bidding in 2012, surrounded the Rams’ Inglewood stadium and Woodland Hills training site with major development and could consider replicating those successes in Anaheim.

Ducks owner Henry Samueli has denied interest in the Angels, but he could consider extending and complementing his OC Vibe development across the 57 Freeway — and his hockey team already wears the Anaheim name.

That assumes, of course, that Moreno opts to sell. He enjoys owning a team and, in a season in which the Angels are one-half game out of first place entering Friday in what appears to be a weak American League West, there is no hurry.

It is considered more likely that Moreno waits until after a new collective bargaining agreement is reached next year to determine whether to sell. All I can tell you for sure Friday is what one baseball official texted me when I asked for reaction to the Padres’ sale: “Great news for the Angels.”