Arizona Diamondbacks right-hander Michael Soroka is putting up numbers reminiscent of his 2019 All-Star season.
The only thing that has changed is everything else.
Using a new “drop and drive” style that generates power from his lower half, plus featuring a slurve he developed in 2025 and has refined this year, Soroka has remade himself into one of the best pitchers — and best comeback stories — in the majors this season.
Soroka (4-0, 2.78 ERA) is scheduled to oppose White Sox right-hander Davis Martin (3-1, 2.16) in the rubber game of a three-game series in Phoenix on Thursday afternoon.
Soroka is not the only headliner in the finale.
Munetaka Murakami will bring a five-game homer streak into the game after hitting a two-run shot in the White Sox’s 11-7 loss Wednesday. He is tied with Shohei Ohtani for the most consecutive games with a homer by a Japanese-born player. Ohtani had a five-game streak last July for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Murakami has 10 homers this season, one fewer than major league leader Yordan Alvarez of the Houston Astros and one more than the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge and Washington’s James Wood.
“I’m not the caliber of player who should be compared to Aaron Judge,” Murakami said through an interpreter. “I have to stay humble and keep doing what I am doing right now.”
Arizona’s Ildemaro Vargas had his second career two-homer game Wednesday and has hit safely in all of his 17 games this season, a franchise record. He has a 20-game hitting streak dating to last year, the longest active streak in the majors.
Soroka is tied with Chris Sale of the Atlanta Braves and Landen Roupp of the San Francisco Giants for the National League lead in victories by a starting pitcher, but the bottom line is health.
After posting a 13-4 record and 2.68 ERA for Atlanta in 2019, Soroka pitched in just three games in the 2020-22 seasons because of two torn Achilles. He played for four different organizations after that before signing a one-year, $7.5 million contract with the Diamondbacks in the offseason. One of those teams was the 2024 White Sox; he was 0-10 with a 4.74 ERA.
“I think I’m better than I have ever been,” Soroka, 28, said recently. “Everybody goes through some sort of injury at some point in their career or struggles with performance.
“For myself it has always been there. I’ve always been able to give my teams a reason to believe in me. I’m very thankful to be in an organization that does that as much as anyone. It’s so easy to go there and want to prove them right. I’ve always seen it in myself, and it means a lot when an organization sees that
in me, too.”
Soroka has given up more than two runs in only one start this season and has struck out 28 with a pair of 10-strikeout games in 22 2/3 innings, a rate of 11.1 per nine innings.
He has faced the White Sox once, pitching three innings in relief against them while with Atlanta in 2023. He allowed two runs but didn’t figure into the decision of an 8-1 loss.
Martin has been as sharp as Soroka in his four starts. He has given three or fewer runs in each, and in April, he has allowed three runs in 20 innings while going 2-1 against the Toronto Blue Jays, Kansas City Royals and Athletics.
He gave up three hits and one run in a 9-2 road victory against the A’s last Friday in his most recent start.
“He goes out there with a plan,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “He has a different mix and just really attacks hitters and isn’t scared. He’s a guy who continues to improve. He has a game plan, and he’s able to execute it.”
Martin has faced the Diamondbacks once in his career, giving up five runs and four hits over three innings in a loss to them in 2022.
–Field Level Media
