Urias dominant, Hitters mash in sweep of San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO – There is a lot of talk about “statement games” — games in which a team puts down a marker for the rest of the league to see. The statement today by the Dodgers in Oracle Park was something along the lines of “Don’t even think about it.” Riding a start from Julio Urias that was perfect through five innings, the Dodgers got beaucoup runs early and weathered a bit of sloppiness late to notch an 11-5 win on Sunday for their seventh straight win.

Tsutsugo gets Dodgers on the board

It sounds funny to say it on a day that the offense put up an 11-spot on the scoreboard, but the story of the day was the pitcher. And not just when he was on the mound. Julio Urias made his first statement of the day with a bat in his hand. After pitching a scoreless first inning, the Mexican lefty was part of the first offensive outburst of the day for the visiting Dodgers. Yoshi Tsutsugo got the scoring starting with a run-scoring single, which scored Will Smith from third. Smith, who singled to lead off the inning, had wisely advanced a base on a Chris Taylor flyout the hitter before, so he scored easily.

Urias brought his good bat to Oracle Park

Urias came to the plate with two on and two out. On the very first pitch, he ripped a line-drive over the head of right fielder Mike Yastrzemski and two more came home. Before Urias had broken a sweat on the mound, he helped himself to a three-run lead.

Huge inning gives Dodgers all they need

With a nice cushion, Urias went on attack mode. Inning after inning he mowed the Giants down. 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3. Meanwhile, the Dodgers hitters decided to bury the Giants’ chances for the day in the top of the third. After Justin Turner grounded out to open up the inning, the Dodgers went on the attack: Max Muncy walked, Will Smith singled, and Matt Beaty singled to score a run to make it 4-0.

Julio strikes again!

The Dodgers were just getting started in the inning. Chris Taylor singled home Smith. After a Tsutsugo groundout, Giants manager Gabe Kapler thought he was being clever by walking 8-hole hitter DJ Peters to throw to Urias with two outs. How wrong he was. Urias hit a shot to the right side that first baseman Darin Ruf couldn’t field cleanly. It was scored a hit, and pushed home Matt Beaty. It was Julio’s third RBI on the day.

Lux redux

Back to the top of the order, up came Gavin Lux, who had been put in the one spot after Mookie Betts was a late scratch with some shoulder soreness. With the bases jammed with Dodgers and leading 6-0, Lux got a good look at a 1-0 slider and let it rip. The ball flew to the deepest part of the park, and landed in the Dodgers bullpen for a grand slam. It was the second time THIS WEEK that Luxy has gone grand salami. Since moving to short, he continues to swing free and easy at the plate, piling up the total bases along the way.

Max mashes

For good measure, Max Muncy hit yet another home run in May to make it 11-0 in the next inning. It was the sixth home run for Muncy on the month, and his slugging percentage is now up to a rock-solid .532. The way he is hitting, he probably shouldn’t plan any fishing trips for the All-Star break.

No-no until the sixth

With the outcome of the game no longer in doubt, the only question would be exactly how awesome of a day it would be for Julio Urias. And Urias didn’t disappoint. In fact, for a time, folks were whispering words like “perfect game” and “no-hitter” around Oracle Park. And indeed, Urias entered the bottom of the sixth perfect, having retired fifteen straight. Curt Casali struck out for the first out and it looked like there would be no stopping Urias today.

One batter later, the shut-out was gone as well when Austin Slater hit a two-run jack to left. Urias was able to regroup and strike out Mike Yastrzemski and end the inning. With the game in their pocket, manager Dave Roberts pulled Urias after six. But the line for the day was another quality start: 6 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 10 K.

Garbage time for the bullpen

In what seems to be a trend this season, the Dodgers sent the B-squad to the mound to finish up the game, and it could have gone better, to be honest. David Price and newcomer Phil Bickford did well, but Edwin Uceta gave up three, and Dennis Santana allowed the bases to be loaded with some wildness in the ninth. In fact, it was so dicey there for a minute that Roberts had to make the call for Blake Treinan to get up and start throwing in the pen, something he wasn’t planning on when it was 11-0. Nevertheless, Santana was able to wriggle out of the jam with a ground out to Gavin Lux on the right side to end the game.

On to Houston for two

The Dodgers are now 29-18. After going 13-2, they are now 16-16 over the last 32 games, choosing the weirdest way possible to play .500 baseball. However, after that sticky patch of a few weeks ago, the Dodgers now have a full head of steam as they head into Houston to play the Astros*. We deserve it. Day off tomorrow. Then, it’s Kershaw v. Greinke on Tuesday night in a battle of old teammates and Cy Young winners. And please God, give us at lease one Joe Kelly vs. Carlos Correa match-ups for us to enjoy.