ARLINGTON -- You don't want your hitters to swing like a rusty gate. You don't want your closer to close like one, either.

That's why the Royals were so pleased to see Joakim Soria close out Saturday's 5-4 Cactus League victory over the Rangers with a perfect ninth inning.

Soria, in his previous two outings, had given up five earned runs and eight hits and a walk in just 1 2/3 innings. Oh-oh.

"I'd certainly like to see him less rusty in his next outing," manager Trey Hillman said the other day.

Well, he must have had somebody give Soria's arm a good shot of WD-40. He started out with a strikeout of Omar Vizquel, then got a popup and a groundout. Just like the good old days.

Soria wasn't that concerned about his rocky showings against the Cubs and the Rockies, but he recognized some flaws.

"No, I just left pitches in there in the zone and they hit the ball. My changeup was no good, it was hanging and was flat. It did nothing at all. That was the problem," Soria said.

"I just want to make sure I hit my spots and everything is going to be all right. I feel like that and I trust in myself and things are going to be good."

Pitching coach Bob McClure, before Soria's outing on Saturday, expressed concern because his closer was behind in his work. Part of the reason was a slight groin pull early in camp and part was illness that curtailed his work while away for 17 days with Mexico in the World Baseball Classic.

"He's been sick, and he had a little bit of a groin problem. He had bronchitis or tonsillitis or something like that, and if you look at his medical [report] that they sent us for when he pitched in the Classic, there's large gaps in between [his outings]," McClure said.

"And there's not a very high pitch count when he did pitch -- nine pitches one inning, 14 pitches, a week in between, then five days in between, then three days in between. So for me, when I'm watching him pitch, it looks like the first five games of Spring Training."

Soria pitched just once before heading off to the Classic and returned to pitch three scoreless outings before having problems. Other than the lost time, there are no lingering effects from the groin pull or the illness, McClure said.

McClure recalled that Hillman, early in his first Royals camp in 2008, was less than overwhelmed by Soria.

"I remember when Trey first got here and saying to me, 'That's going to be our closer, huh?' Just for the fact that he wasn't sharp yet," McClure said. "And he goes on to get 42 saves, but we had seen him pitch; I didn't know he'd get 40, but you knew that he'd save a lot of games. So to me, he looks behind."

Now, after Saturday's save, Soria seems to be catching up.

"That's a good thing," Hillman said. "It's just a matter of getting his command control back, and obviously, it was there today."

Hillman prefers to think of the Soria who had those 42 saves and was dominating all last season.

"You've got a one-run lead on Opening Day and you get into the ninth inning, I'm going to bank on the guy we saw do it so often last year, and hopefully it's clicking for him," Hillman said. "If I had to bet on that, I'd say there's a lot higher percentage chance that it's going to than it's not going to."

Soria knows what to do with those bad outings.

"Hopefully, that will stay in there in Spring Training," Soria said.