Steve Webb
CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — The triumph of El Culichi. Julio Urias, who has been the most consistent pitcher on baseball’s best team all season, now has won honor that nobody needs to vote on: he is your 2022 National League ERA king. He finished off the year with a solid, if unspectacular, start against the Colorado Rockies, giving up just two solo home runs in five innings of work. The rest of the Dodgers however, continue to be mired in this post-clinching slump that has descended on the team in the last two weeks. They only gave Urías two runs of support and fell to the Colorado Rockies for the third straight time by a score of 5-2. So I guess nobody has to worry about the Dodgers “losing momentum” with the week-layoff during the Wild Card round. There is no momentum to lose.
Urías goes five innings, but gets no-decision
If the Dodgers had given Julio any run support at all, it would have been his 18th victory on Tuesday. Instead, it was just a five-inning no-decision. For the most part, it was a classic Urías start: not many baserunners, no sustained rallies, but a couple of mistakes are hit for solo home runs. In this one, Julio gave up solo shots to Brendan Rodgers in the top of the first and Sean Brouchard in the third, and that was it. Both homers came off an Urías fastball. Rodgers hit an elevated heater, something very few hitters have been able to do all year. So you just have to tip your hat to the guy. The Brouchard pitch, on the other hand, was more center-cut, and probably one Julio would like back.
Other than the two gopher balls, Urías gave up two more hits and one walk. On the evening, he threw 83 pitches, landing 55 of them for strikes. Now, he’ll need to figure out a way to stay loose and focused for seven days off. His final stats for 2022: 17-7, 2.16 ERA (NL best), 175 IP, 166 K, 0.96 WHIP. While it’s been a great year for the Dodgers’ ace, I’m sure Urías will be ready for the challenge of his first postseason of being the dude.
“I feel really happy with how this season has gone,” Urías said after the game. “We just have to keep going and the hardest part is in front of us now, which is the postseason.”
Dodger bats manage two runs to take Julio off the hook
The high-flying Dodger offense has been anything but in the last couple of weeks, ranking near the bottom of baseball in the categories it dominated all through the summer. Call it post-clinch letdown, call it a lack of focus, whatever. But the truth of the matter is that the offense just hasn’t been clicking since the team got back from San Francisco after a 7-2 road trip, during which time they clinched the division. From that moment on, the Dodgers have played some pretty pedestrian baseball, going 9-7 over that stretch. Now I know 9-7 in meaningless games is not that bad, but it’s the way they’ve been playing more than the outcome of the games themselves. They’ve only managed 10 runs over the four games in October and have lost three of them.
In this one, all their scoring came in the first half of the ballgame. They scored one in the bottom of the third, thanks to a double from Gavin Lux and and RBI single from Cody Bellinger. And then, in the fifth, they got one more thanks to a leadoff homer from Joey Gallo. And that was basically it for the Dodgers. The top of the line up was particularly cold yet again. The “Big Three” went a combined 0-for-9. Because of this late-season swoon, it looks like Freddie Freeman probably won’t win the batting title or get 200 hits after they both seemed a sure thing just a few days ago. It’s no surprise that the Dodgers have lost the last three games: Freeman doesn’t have a hit in any of them.
Homer off Heaney sinks the Dodgers
The dagger in the Dodgers chances in this game came in the top of the 7th inning. After pitching a scoreless 6th, newly-minted reliever Andrew Heaney went back to his old bad habits in the 7th. In other words, he gave up a home run. This one was with two outs and and a two-strike count to outfielder Randal Grichuk. Heaney threw a slider on a 1-2 count that didn’t get nearly enough east-to-west movement. Grichuk banged it into the left field seats and the game was essentially over at that point. The Rockies tacked on an unnecessary insurance run in the 9th to make the final score 5-2.
Heaney did get his strikeouts, six of them, but his vulnerability to the home run ball makes him a big question mark for the postseason. But given the state of Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May, Heaney will see some innings in October. We just have to hope the Dodgers have some offense when that happens.
Regular season finale Wednesday afternoon
At long last, the end of the regular season is upon us. The Dodgers will lace them up one last time before going into the weird state of existence that comes with a first round bye this year. But before that, the team has one more game to play. As has become the habit on the last day of the season, all 15 games will be happening at the same time (weather permitting), 1:20 pm PDT. Clayton Kershaw will make his last tune-up start before (probably) starting Game 2 of the NLDS against whomever. It will be interesting to see how far Kersh goes in this one. My guess is five, given that there is a full week between starts for him. Every win is good, but it will be especially nice to go into this week with a little momentum. Here. We. Go.
Cans of Corn…
- Though he’s unlikely to play in the finale, Chris Taylor expressed confidence that he’d be ready for the NLDS.
- Julio did all he could to make his Cy Young case. The rest is up to the voters.
- Offense really phoning it in. Not a great look.
- Bullpen is completely rested. Guys should get one last tune-up in the later inning on Wednesday.
