Urias wins 20th as Dodgers stay alive in the NL West race

LOS ANGELES — It all comes down to Sunday. After six months, we have a meaningful 162nd game of the year coming up on October 3. On Saturday, the Dodgers rode a fantastic start from Julio Urias to victory, backed by another blistering offensive attack. Justin Turner started the scoring in the bottom of the first with a three-run bomb, and the Dodgers never looked back, coasting to an 8-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers. That win, coupled with a Giants’ loss on Saturday afternoon, pulls the Dodgers to within one game of division-leading San Francisco. Which means that Sunday’s game could force an extra Game 163 for all the marbles on Monday. Wooboy!

Urias gives up an early run, but Turner turns the tables in the first

Lefty Julio Urias got the start on Saturday, with an opportunity to win his 20th game of the year. Things got off to a bit of a rocky start, though. In the top of the first, Julio walked his old World Series buddy Willy Adames to give the Brewers some early foot traffic on the basepaths. Adames move to third on an Eduardo Escobar double and then scored on a groundball out to the right side. You never want to get down early in a game, but especially when you’re facing Corbin Burnes, who has been brilliant all year long. Nevertheless, the Dodgers went into the home half of the first trailing 1-0.

The bottom of the first got off to a quiet start as both Mookie and Corey were retired without much fanfare. However, the thing about this lineup is that it sort of reloads, having a 1-2 punch of Betts/Seager followed by another 1-2 punch of Turner/Muncy. And it was the second 1-2 punch that got things going with two outs. Trea Turner came through with an opposite field single, which was quickly followed by a Max Muncy walk. If you recall, it was Burnes who started the season by getting a record setting 58-straight strikeouts without giving up a walk, so getting a walk right away in the first inning was something of an accomplishment in itself.

However, the big blow came with the next hitter. Justin Turner dug in against Burnes with a couple of ducks on the pond. He got ahead of Burnes 3-0 before watching a strike sail by to make it 3-1. Then, he got a middle-in cutter and he was able to pull in his hands and put a hurt to it. He ripped a towering shot to left that easily reached the seats and staked Urias to an early 3-1 lead.

Burnes pulled, Dodgers’ bats keep the pressure on

Corbin Burnes, who came into the game as Max Scherzer and Walker Buehler biggest competition for the Cy Young award, got yanked by manager Craig Counsel after just two innings. Perhaps he wanted to maintain Burnes’s narrow ERA lead over Scherzer. Or maybe he just wanted to limit his ace’s exposure to a potential rival. But for whatever reason, the Dodgers now had to deal with Colin Rea, who was pitching his first game of the entire year. Of course, this move was probably not greeted with enthusiasm in the 415 area-code, but if you put yourself in Counsel’s shoes, you totally get it. There was literally zero upside to leaving Burnes in the game for the Brewers.

Dodgers separate with three in the fourth

With Burnes out of the game, the Dodgers got busy. They put up another three spot in the bottom of the fourth. They got back-to-back singles from Muncy and JT to corner the runners with nobody out, and then Will Smith came through with a nice sacrifice fly to center to score Muncy. But the Dodgers weren’t done. Hot-hitting AJ Pollock came up to the plate and just demolished a four-seamer from Rea. It just cleared the right centerfield fence for a two-run home run. The Dodgers were up 6-1 and were pulling away from the Crew.

Urias goes 6.1 innings of one-hit ball

Pitching with a big lead, Julio Urias was fully in charge. He attacked the strike zone, throwing 63 strikes in 93 pitches. Other than that well-hit double from Escobar, the Brewers struggled to put the barrel to anything he threw. When Dave Roberts came to remove Julio from the game in the top of the seventh, he exited the field to a thunderous ovation. The crowd knew that he would be the club’s first 20-game winner since Clayton Kershaw in 2014. Stat nerds say that the win is a meaningless stat these days, and to a certain degree that’s right. But, the cheers of the fans told a different story. Urias’s final line on the night: 6.1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 7 K.

Corey and Max add two more

Corey Seager and Max Muncy added a couple more runs to the total in the later innings with two blasts to right field. Seager hit a pole-hugging solo shot in the fifth to put the Dodgers up 7-1, and Muncy drilled a deep fly that right field Tyrone Taylor couldn’t come up with in the eighth. The ball bounced off the scoreboard and Trea Turner easily scored on the play for the Dodgers’ eighth and final run.

Bullpen finishes things up

With Urias in the dugout, it was up to the bullpen to get the final eight outs of the ballgame. Phil Bickford was sharp in the seventh, and Mitch White got a 1-2-3 eighth. However, David Price, mopping up in the ninth wasn’t quite so lucky. He got touched for a Willy Adames homer and a run-scoring single from Tyrone Taylor to make the final score 8-3. Still, it was a solid win all the way around. Good pitching, good defense, and a relentless offensive attack. Now, we just have to do it all one more time.

“So you’re saying there’s a chance”

It would be a bit nicer to go into this final game tied, but going in trailing by one is exciting nevertheless. The pitching matchups for both the Giants and the Dodgers on Sunday favor the home teams. Logan Webb, who’s had a great second half of the year, will be starting for the Gigantics at Oracle Park, and Walker Buehler makes his final start of the year for the Dodgers. On the other hand, the Padres will send untested youngster Reiss Knehr to the mound, and the Brewers will throw lefty Brett Anderson. Maybe Mr. Knehr can come up with a big start to end the Jayce Tingler era with a bang. Maybe. All games start at noon PST on Sunday, so it should be a free-for-all of great baseball. Even if the Dodgers don’t make it to the mountaintop, you’ve got to like the fight they’ve shown this last week of the season. Let’s. F’n. Go!