Reliever Soriano gets rare night off
Baltimore — Rafael Soriano got a rare night off Saturday, after pitching five times in the previous seven days.
The workload says a lot about how well he has pitched since ulnar-transposition surgery.
"He wants to pitch every night," manager Bobby Cox said. "His arm finally feels terrific."
Soriano is eighth among National League relievers with a 1.52 ERA, and he's third among NL relievers with 37 strikeouts. Opponents are hitting .184 (19-for-103) against him, and he has converted five of six save opportunities.
When asked if he feels like he has two closers at his disposal, the other being left-hander Mike Gonzalez, Cox said, "Yeah, I do, absolutely."
Twice last week against the Pirates, Cox went with Gonzalez in the eighth inning and Soriano in the ninth. Soriano pitched two scoreless innings in the first of those games, which went extra innings, and got the save in the other.
Soriano then pitched the ninth in a third game of the Pirates series to relieve Javier Vazquez. He took the loss in that game Thursday, breaking a streak of nine consecutive scoreless outings over 10-2/3 innings.
Cox played match-ups in those games, in part to get Gonzalez in against the left-hander Adam LaRoche in the eighth, for example. Gonzalez said that's fine with him.
"I'm all for it, I just want to win," Gonzalez said. "And Sori feels the same way. We've had conversations about it. We're all for it. I might have felt a little different, but Sori's got a great arm, he's a great pitcher, a great guy to have. If I'm Bobby Cox, I'm doing the same thing."
Carlyle copes
It's been a week since reliever Buddy Carlyle was diagnosed with Type I diabetes, and he's still in the process of trying to figure out how to monitor his blood-sugar levels.
Carlyle has had to prick his finger 10 times a day, which is complicated by the fact that he is pricking only fingers on his left hand, so when the time comes, he won't lose any feel on his pitches. He's right-handed.
Carlyle has begun playing catch, but it will be a while before he's ready to pitch again. He has to regain his strength and figure out what will work for him during games. He's researching an insulin pack and a monitoring system that he can wear on the mound.
But Carlyle has gained 10 pounds back of the 20 pounds he lost, and his spirits are good, considering he knows now what he's facing.
"There were times I didn't want to pitch, that I didn't want to be there," said Carlyle, who spent the better part of a decade in the minors and two years pitching in Japan. "I can't believe I'd ever say that when I was in the big leagues. I knew something was wrong."
Now, he says, he hopes he can turn this into a positive and show younger diabetes patients that he can compete at such a high level without problems.
"For kids who get this at 13 and 14, it's got to be really hard," said Carlyle, 31.
