PHOENIX — José Soriano continues to be the most encouraging story in an otherwise disappointing Angels season.

Soriano dominated the Arizona Diamondbacks for eight innings in the Angels’ 8-3 victory on Wednesday night.

Soriano had faced the minimum 21 hitters through seven innings, thanks to four double plays. He lost his bid for a shutout when he allowed a solo homer to lead off the eighth.

Soriano then struck out three of the next four batters to get out of the inning.

Manager Ron Washington then gave him a chance to get the Angels’ first complete game of the season. Geraldo Perdomo hit a sharp comebacker that Soriano could only deflect back toward the plate, allowing Perdomo to reach with an infield single.

Washington then pulled Soriano, who was charged with a second run after left-hander Matt Moore gave up a two-run homer.

The Angels converted the Soriano, 25-year-old right-hander, from a reliever into a starter this year, and he’s delivered a 3.48 ERA in 72⅓ innings.

Many young starters, even those who are successful, begin their careers by having trouble getting deep into games. Soriano, though, has proven to be pitch efficient.

He’s worked at least six innings in seven of his 12 starts, even though he has still not thrown 100 pitches.

One of the reasons he’s managed to do that is that his 101 mph fastball is a two-seamer, which means it’s better for getting ground balls than strikeouts.

Soriano has struck out just 20.3% of the hitters he’s faced, which is less than the major league average. His ratio of 1.6 ground outs per fly out, however, is well above the major league average.

That helped him to induce four double plays on Wednesday, which sped him through the Arizona lineup without much trouble. The Diamondbacks had four hits and two walks, but they did not get a runner into scoring position until a Christian Walker homer in the eighth.

Soriano threw 10 pitches or fewer in three innings. He needed 97 pitches to get 24 outs on Wednesday night.

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While Soriano was cruising through the Diamondbacks’ lineup, the Angels were pounding Arizona pitching to provide a healthy cushion.

Jo Adell blasted a 434-foot, three-run homer in the fourth to put the Angels ahead 6-0.

Zach Neto hit his eighth homer of the season and barely missed his ninth. In the sixth inning, he hit a drive to center field that was initially ruled a two-run homer. Upon review, umpires determined the ball hit just below the line, so Neto settled for an RBI double.

Neto has hit .289 with eight homers and an .855 OPS over 161 plate appearances since April 22.

More to come on this story.