Steve Webb
KANSAS CITY, MO — Julio Urias is going to figure heavily into the plans of the Dodgers if they want to make a deep run in October. But not that Julio Urías. Last year’s Cy Young finalist returned from a prolonged stay on the injured list and struggled in his return, giving up five runs to the lowly Kansas City Royals in the bottom of the first and exiting after three innings. The Dodgers scored a few runs of their own to make a game of it, but in the the end, spotting your opponent a five-run lead is never a good idea. The Dodgers dropped the middle game of the set 6-4, and now must win on Sunday to avoid the embarrassing series loss to one of the worst teams in baseball.
Truth be told, Urías didn’t pitch as badly as the stat line might indicate. He was done in in that first inning by a series of doinks, bloops, and seeing-eye grounders as the Royals put together one of the unlikeliest five-run rallies of the year. Some of the damage was self inflicted; Urías walked a batter and hit another. And, most of the hits in the inning wouldn’t get arrested for speeding on I-70 near Kauffman Stadium. There was only one hard-hit ball in the entire innings: Maikel Garcia‘s run-scoring double. Still, Urías just didn’t have a put-away pitch on Saturday, and it showed.
“I just have to pitch better,” Urías said of his outing. “Obviously, I felt good, but I didn’t do my job and I have to pitch better.”
“That was a frustrating inning,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I thought initially he came out good, but he just got victimized by a lot of soft contact. They weren’t swinging and missing, but just putting the ball in play. It was somehow finding the outfield grass, but give Urías a lot of credit for getting through it and getting up to 66 pitches and throwing up a couple zeros.”
“I pitched bad,” Urías added. “I had a lot of mistakes and I have to be better. I need to get results and get the outs.”
In all, Urías gutted through three innings on 66 pitches. His day went a lot better after the first, but the elevated pitch count in that inning meant that he wouldn’t be long for the world after that. Julio’s final line for the day: 6.0 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 2 K. His ERA for the year is now an elevated 4.94. That won’t get it done if the Dodgers want to contend with the likes of the Braves and Rays in October.
Offensively, the Dodgers put a little rally together to cut the deficit to 5-3 in the top the second, but couldn’t do much beyond that. After giving up a run to the Royals in the seventh, the Dodgers got one back in the eighth, but left the bases loaded when Freddie Freeman grounded out to second to end the inning, and for all intents and purposes, the Dodgers’ chances for a comeback win.
Morning baseball on Sunday with Tony Gonsolin on the mound (10:30 first pitch), and then its back home for a four-gamer with the struggling Pirates before ending the first half against the Angels at Dodger Stadium. Given the competition, the Dodgers really need to get some wins in this week, so they can go into the break feeling good about themselves. And then, Andrew Friedman and company need to start working those phones!!
