Julio Urias overcomes early struggles to help Dodgers defeat Cubs, 3-2

A young Julio Urias — you know, that 19-year-old kid who graced the Dodger Stadium mound, like, two, three months ago — might have buckled at the knees and crumbled after opening a game against one of baseball’s most powerful clubs with a walk, two hits and a run.

A sturdy, more confident, more mature and more seasoned Urias, the one who turned 20 on Aug. 12 and seems to be growing more comfortable in the big leagues with every start, barely flinched.

Urias shook off a shaky three-batter opening act to pitch six strong innings against the Chicago Cubs on Saturday, allowing that one run and six hits, striking out eight and walking two to lead the Dodgers to a 3-2 victory and keep them atop the National League West.

“I think early in the season you might have seen him waver a little, but he just brushed it off,” Manager Dave Roberts said. “With his mound presence and composure, he continued to execute pitches. He kept competing, and that’s a sign of growth.”

Three batters in, the situation looked grim for Urias, who walked Dexter Fowler, gave up a single to Kris Bryant and a run-scoring single to Anthony Rizzo.

Urias caught a break when cleanup batter Ben Zobrist, opting for small ball over the big inning, advanced the runners with a sacrifice bunt. Urias struck out Addison Russell and Jorge Soler, both looking at sliders, to end an inning in which he threw 31 pitches.

Urias needed only 63 pitches to blank the Cubs on four hits over the next five innings, a solid encore to his six-inning, six-hit, six-strikeout shutout of Cincinnati on Aug. 21.

“I attacked the zone more, tried to throw more strikes, and everything worked out,” Urias said through an interpreter. “You know you have the confidence with your catcher to throw whatever pitch is necessary, and that’s helping.”

Urias, who allowed six runs and three homers in five innings of a June 2 loss to the Cubs in Wrigley Field — his second big league start — is 5-2 with a 3.71 earned-run average on the season and 4-0 with a 2.03 ERA in six games since the All-Star break.

“In the beginning, I felt strange,” Urias said. “But now, I feel like I’m a part of this level and I belong here. I’m a lot more confident. That’s the biggest difference.”

So is Urias’ command of the strike zone.

“I think early on he was trying to understand the major league strike zone, and it’s a little tighter east-west, and a little more liberal north-south,” Roberts said. “Early on, he felt he was being squeezed, but with the stuff he has, he can trust it and be a little more aggressive in the strike zone.”

Urias also helped himself with his bat Saturday. The Dodgers tied the score, 1-1, in the first when Corey Seager drove his 23rd homer, a solo shot, to center off Jason Hammel to break the single-season record for homers by a Dodgers shortstop, set by Glenn Wright in 1930.

Andrew Toles led off the third with a double to right. Urias squared to bunt, pulled his bat back and slapped a single to left to put runners on first and third for Chase Utley, who rolled an RBI single to center for a 2-1 lead. Two batters later, Justin Turner grounded an RBI single to center for a 3-1 lead.

The win came with some turbulence. Pedro Baez replaced Urias with a 3-1 lead in the seventh, and it took the notoriously slow-working right-hander 29 minutes to throw 29 pitches, give up two hits, walk two and commit an error.

The Cubs pulled to within 3-2 on Jason Heyward’s pinch-hit, RBI single to left, but with two on, left-hander Adam Liberatore replaced Baez and got Rizzo to ground to first to end the inning.

Jesse Chavez threw a one-two-three eighth, and Kenley Jansen atoned for Friday night’s blown save, retiring the side in order in the ninth and blazing a game-ending 97-mph fastball by Matt Szczur to notch his 38th save.

“I was probably angry,” Jansen said, citing a reason for his velocity jump. “I have to figure out how I can be angry all the time out there. I didn’t get many hours of sleep [Friday] night. Whenever you have a tough loss like that, I feel like I let my teammates down. That really bothers me.”

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

Twitter: @MikeDiGiovanna