Soriano looks ready to start season

Kissimmee, Fla. — If Rafael Soriano’s relief appearance Thursday was to decide whether he makes the Braves’ opening day roster, then the right-hander probably secured his spot.

Soriano, in just his fifth spring-training appearance, gave up a leadoff single, then retired the next three batters in the fifth inning of the Braves’s 2-1 win against the Astros’ Class-AAA affliliate. It was the Braves last game before leaving Florida. They’ll play the Tigers in two exhibition games Friday and Saturday at Turner Field.

The Braves played the Astros’ minor-league team because Houston’s major-league squad returned to Texas to play a game against the organization’s Class-AA team.

Braves manager Bobby Cox said before the game that if Soriano got through without problems, he would be on the 25-man roster when the Braves open the season Sunday night at Philadelphia.

“He threw the ball good, looked fine,” Cox said afterward.

Did he show enough to make it on the roster? “I think so,” Cox said.

Soriano has been slowed this spring by physical ailments including an upper-respiratory problem that lingered for a month and a slightly strained side muscle. This after having season-ending surgery Aug. 28 to transpose the ulnar nerve in his pitching elbow and have a bone spur removed.

He pitched in only 14 games between three stints on the disabled list in 2008, in the first season of a two-year, $9 million contract. The right-hander is making $6.1 million this season, making him one of, if not, the highest paid setup man in the majors. He could also serve as a backup closer.

The Braves are expected to carry an extra (eighth) relief pitcher to start the season, since neither Soriano nor sidearmer Peter Moylan will be used in consecutive games right away.

Moylan is 11 months removed from ligament-transplant elbow surgery, which typically requires a 12-month recovery period. But he’s progressed steadily in camp and pitched Thursday for his third appearance in six days, giving up one hit and recording a strikeout, same as Soriano.

Cox doesn’t plan to announce his roster until Friday or Saturday when the Braves are in Atlanta.

In addition to closer Mike Gonzalez and right-handers Moylan and Soriano, good bets to make the Braves’ bullpen include right-handers Buddy Carlyle, Blaine Boyer, Jorge Campillo and Jeff Bennett; and left-hander Eric O’Flaherty.