Bobby Cox pleased with reliever Soriano

Kissimmee, Fla. — Rafael Soriano threw his first inning of spring on Tuesday, and for the first time in a long time, the Braves can feel some promise about their former closer.

He threw 11 pitches in a scoreless inning against Houston, and eight of them were strikes. He gave up a single to Jason Smith but retired the other three batters he faced including Carlos Lee on a groundout and Hunter Pence by strikeout. The Braves beat the Astros 7-4 in the Grapefruit League game.

“Not bad for the first time,” said Soriano, who pitched only 14 innings last season because of elbow problems. “For being gone a long time, not doing that, to me everything did fine.”

Manager Bobby Cox took it further than that.

“Soriano was really good,” Cox said. “He really popped some balls. Really didn’t know how he was going to throw the first time out, velocity wise, but it was there.”

Soriano struggled with elbow problems from this time last year throughout the season, repeatedly trying to pitch through pain. Multiple MRIs showed no tears before he was finally diagnosed with a nerve problem. He underwent ulnar nerve transposition surgery on Aug. 28.

Now he says the arm is much better and so are his spirits.

“I won’t say I’m 100 percent right now but I think I’m very close,” said Soriano, who thinks with a little more arm strength he will be.

“I feel better now after what happened last year.”

Soriano’s first outing was delayed after he came down with an upper respiratory infection the first week of camp. He still has nearly a month to get ready for the season and plans to be ready by Opening Day.