Betts, Urias shine in rainy day win in Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH – As Gene Kelly used to sing, “Come on with the rain; I’ve got a smile on my face.” For the third day in a row, the Dodgers/Pirates series was affected by some summer showers, and for the third day in a row, it didn’t matter. This time the Dodgers got a five-tool performance from Mookie Betts and were able to come away 6-3 victors in a rain-shortened game against the Pirates.

Betts at the bat!

In a game that began barely after most Angelenos had had their morning bagel, the Dodgers got off to a VERY early start. On the third pitch of the ball game, Mookie Betts smacked a fastball from Pirates starter Mitch Keller deep to left center field. The ball easily cleared the fence and landed in the Dodgers bullpen, and just like that, the Boys in Blue were on the board.

Betts in the field!

Julio Urias got the start for the Dodgers, and after a scoreless first inning, the lefty got into a bit of trouble in the second. After the Pirates’ Phillip Evans singled to right to lead off the inning, Erik Gonzalez looped a double down the right field line that rattled around a bit in the corner. By the time Betts had corralled the ball, Evans was around third and scored fairly easily.

After Urias uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Gonzalez to take third, Mookie Betts made the play of the game, and maybe of the season so far. Ka’ai Tom flew out to medium deep right field, and Gonzalez broke for home as soon as the ball hit Betts’s glove. Mookie’s momentum in catching the ball at his shoestrings forced him to do a 360 counterclockwise spin in the outfield, but he came out of the spin throwing. He delivered a strike to the plate, and catcher Austin Barnes applied the tag to Gonzalez, who could only stare in disbelief at what had just happened to him. With those two outs on one play, the Pirates’ threat in the second was extinguished pretty quickly.

Is that Julio Urias, or Albert Pujols?

The Dodgers got a few more cheap runs in the third, scoring three times on only two singles. But thanks to a couple of HBPs from Keller, the bases were loaded for Zach McKinstry to hit a sac fly to put the Dodgers back in front.

Then, Pirates manager Derek Shelton got a little too clever for his own good. He walked Austin Barnes so that he could face pitcher Julio Urias with the bases loaded. Apparently, Shelton didn’t know that Julio has been raking this year (well, for a pitcher, anyway). Urias smacked a single to right field to score both Cody Bellinger and Gavin Lux, extending the Dodgers’ lead to 4-1. Julio now has seven RBI this season, putting him first among all pitchers.

Urias goes six for the win

Pitching with a 4-1 lead, Urias gave those two runs he drove in right back in the bottom of the inning. He hung a two-strike breaking ball to Walker Buehler‘s old Vandy teammate Bryan Reynolds, and Reynolds pounced on it. He drove the pitch over the left field fence for a two-run shot to tighten the game to 4-3. But, that was all the Pirates could manage against Urias on the afternoon. It wasn’t his best outing of the year, but it was good enough for his league-leading ninth win of the season. His line for the afternoon. 6 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 5 K.

Though four runs were going to be enough for a win on Thursday, the Dodgers did tack on a couple more in the later innings, one on a sacrifice fly from Zach McKinstry in the seventh and another on a Justin Turner single in the eighth. Then, with runners on first and second with the Dodgers still batting in the eighth, the skies really opened up and the grounds crew started rolling out the tarps. The weather report didn’t bear much good news, so the game was called after about an hour.

Betts played like Mookie Betts

But the star of the day was certainly Mookie Betts. Showing why he is such a prized piece of the Dodgers line-up, Betts displayed all five tools today. Offensively, he went 2-for-4 with a home run and a stolen base. And in the field, he started one of the best double plays you’re likely to see in a good long while. It’s been a minute since Betts has been the difference maker in a Dodger win, a fact that he acknowledged in post-game interviews. “As a team, we haven’t played great,” Betts told Sean Casey on YouTube after the game, “for us to be in the position we’re in is a really good sign. Hopefully a couple of us will get hot here soon, and we can string some wins together.”

Back to sunny LA

So as the Dodgers board their flight back to sunny Los Angeles, they come home off a pretty successful road trip. They lost a couple to the Braves, but swept the Pirates, ending the road trip at 4-2. This marks the thirteenth straight win over the Bucs, a record that hasn’t been seen against one team since the days of the the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The team comes home for its final socially distanced games of the year before the Stadium is back to unrestricted seating on the 15th of this month. The homestand gets underway on Friday night against the Rangers. Former Rangers fan Clayton Kershaw will get the ball, facing Mike Foltynewicz. The game, which probably won’t be rained out, begins at 7:10 pm, when normal people watch baseball games.