Urias pitches Dodgers back into the W column with 17th win

LOS ANGELES — It is really quite remarkable the under-the-radar awesome season that lefty Julio Urias is having. But for a couple of clunkers early in the year, he would definitely be on the Cy Young short list. The lefty was masterful again on Friday night in the opening game of the homestand. He held the Padres scoreless over seven innings of work, and gave the Dodgers all the length they needed. Max Muncy supplied the power with a mammoth home run, and the Dodgers made their four hits count for a 3-0 shutout win over San Diego.

Muncy blast breaks scoreless tie

For the first couple of innings, San Diego starter Joe Musgrove had the Dodgers at bay, and it looked like it might be another night of frustration for the Dodgers’ hitters. They got good wood on Musgrove, but the Dodgers left a lot of flyballs on the warning track for outs. However, in the Dodgers’ half of the third inning, Max Muncy put an end to that very quickly. After a Mookie Betts single, Muncy just buried an 0-1 cutter from Musgrove and sent it deep among the paying customers in the right field pavilion. Folks in the home run seats could do nothing but watch the blast sail over their heads and land 428 feet from home plate.

Urias works around early wildness, pitches seven shutout innings

With an extra day of rest, Julio Urias took to the mound on Friday, and though it wasn’t his best outing of the season it was plenty good. He was a little wild early on (he hit two Padres and walked one), but he eventually got his sights zeroed in on the strike zone and was able to pitch into the seventh inning. He scattered three hits during the night and pitched around some early traffic, but was really rolling by the end of his night.

Urias’s scoreless outing dropped his ERA for the season to under 3.00, and he notched his league-leading 17th win of the year. Though he’s still behind Max and Walker, he’s sure to get at least a handful of Cy Young votes this year. His final line for Friday: 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 7 K.

Dodgers get another run in the the fourth

The Muncy homer put the Dodgers on the board, but they were able to add on in their next trip to the plate. It started with a Will Smith double that came very close to leaving the yard. Centerfielder Trent Grisham made an awkward lunge at the ball, but it bounced off the wall, and by the time the ball got back to the infield, Smith was camp at second base. He moved up on a Musgrove wild pitch, and Chris Taylor brought him home on a mile-high flyball to left field. It was the first good bit of hitting from Taylor in a while, and hopefully, it is the sign of better things around the corner.

Treinen pitches scoreless 8th

Things got a little dicey after Urias exited the game. The usually lights-out Blake Treinen came in for the eighth inning, and as he usually does, he got a couple of quick outs. But Ha Seong Kim beat the shift with an opposite field single, and Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a single of his own the other way. Suddenly, there were runners on first and third. Tatis quickly stole second during Wil Myers at-bat, and Myers had a chance to get a couple ribeyes late in the the game.

Treinen brought out the good stuff for Myers, and the two got into quite a battle. It looked a couple of times like Treinen had gotten a check swing strike, but the first base umpire did not see it that way. Finally, on a 3-2 count, Treinen got the swinging strike he was looking for, and the Padres threat was extinguished.

Jansen for the save

Kenley Jansen came in for the ninth, hoping for a quick and drama-free save. And for the most part he delivered. He got a couple of pop outs from Jurickson Profar and Austin Nola. Adam Frazier was able to sneak a ball through the shifted infield, so it wasn’t quite a clean outing. He stole second and advanced to third on one of Kenley’s patented intentional balks, but that’s as far as he got. Pinch hitter Eric Hosmer hit a harmless ground ball to short, and Corey Seager threw him out to end the game. Final score: 3-0 Dodgers.

Twenty games to go

With just three weeks left in the season, it is critical that the Dodgers win every remaining game that they can. They only got four hits today, but with the Muncy home run, it was enough. Any game that you can go Urias to Treinen to Jansen is usually a good one for the Dodgers. Walker Buehler will be looking to wash away that clunker in San Francisco on Saturday night. He’ll take the mound against Chris Paddack, who is still struggling to establish himself as an ace for San Diego. With a Giants’ victory in Chicago, the margin in the division remains at 2 1/2 games. Nothing the Dodgers can do but worry about themselves and take care of business on their own. Here we go…