Julio Urías makes statement on mound as Dodgers hold off Diamondbacks
Julio Urías officially has a scoreless streak going.
A week after tossing five shutout innings against the last-place Oakland A’s — an incremental step forward in his up-and-down season — the Dodgers left-hander delivered a more resounding statement Tuesday, blanking the Arizona Diamondbacks over six impressive innings in the team’s 5-4 win at Chase Field.
“Mostly, [I’m] just feeling like myself,” Urías said in Spanish. “Feeling like myself mechanically. Feeling like with all three of my pitches I can make an adjustment. That’s what I’m liking. And I’m hoping I can keep that constant.”
Indeed, in vintage Urías fashion, the 26-year-old southpaw played to all his strengths in a four-hit, five-strikeout display.
His fastball command was sharp, locating it to all corners of the strike zone. His breaking ball was effective, with the Diamondbacks putting only one of his 26 slurves into play.
And where big innings, bouts of frustration and inconsistent command had plagued Urías earlier in the season — leading to a career-worst 4.69 ERA entering Tuesday — the Dodgers’ opening-day starter avoided any such stumbling blocks in their series opener in Phoenix, completing scoreless starts in consecutive outings for the first time all year.
“The fastball has more life. The command of the fastball has been much better. The late life with the slider and the changeup has been considerably better,” manager Dave Roberts said of Urías. “That probably speaks to delivery. But when he’s good, when any pitcher is good, everything comes out of the same window, the same lane. You can tell when everything looks like the same pitch.”
The Dodgers gave Urías an early lead.
Padres pitcher Seth Lugo said after Monday’s game that the Dodgers were relaying signs from second base. The Dodgers denied it and said Lugo was making excuses.
Kiké Hernández hit an RBI double in the second, giving him 13 hits and eight RBIs through his first 12 games back with the Dodgers. Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman fueled a three-run rally in the fifth with back-to-back RBI doubles, Betts’ coming at the end of an 11-pitch at-bat.
After Urías exited, the bullpen almost blew it.
Alex Vesia and Brusdar Graterol combined to give up two runs in the eighth, cutting the Dodgers’ 4-0 lead in half.
Betts’ insurance RBI single in the ninth proved valuable, as well, after closer Evan Phillips gave up two more runs and needed Freeman to turn a sharp double play at first to end the game.
It was the six innings Urías was on the mound, though, that mattered most to the arc of the Dodgers’ season.
Through the first four frames, only three Diamondbacks reached base against Urías, none of them advancing past first.
In the fifth, outfielder David Peralta denied his old team of their best chance at early runs, robbing his ex-Arizona teammate Carson Kelly of a two-run homer with a leaping catch at the wall in left.
After Ketel Marte led off the Diamondbacks’ half of the sixth inning with a single, Urías delivered his most impressive sequence of the night.
He got All-Star rookie Corbin Carroll to ground out to second. He froze deadline acquisition Tommy Pham on a called third strike. Then, he fanned notorious Dodgers killer Christian Walker on a changeup to retire the side.
“He wanted to pitch deeper in the game,” Roberts said. “You could see that.”
It’s now been 14 innings since Urías last gave up a run, going back to his July 25 start against the Toronto Blue Jays. He has also yielded two runs or fewer in eight of his last 11 starts (though he suffered clunkers of five, six and eight runs in the other three).
Urías remains a ways off his Cy Young-caliber pace of the last two seasons. Even after Tuesday’s outing, his ERA only dropped to 4.39, still a career-worst mark as he approaches free agency this offseason.
For the Dodgers, however, what matters most is whether Urías can round into form over the season’s final couple of months. Even with Clayton Kershaw set to return from the injured list Thursday, Urías might well be the most important piece to their late-season pitching fortunes.
And, at long last, he is starting to look more like his old self for an extended run.
“Right now I feel good,” Urías said. “I’m trying to focus on that.”
As the season races to a conclusion, there are three favorites to win the NL MVP award. Who will get it?
Martinez scratched again
For the third time in the last month, the Dodgers had to scratch designated hitter J.D. Martinez from the lineup shortly before first pitch Tuesday because of an injury in his groin/hamstring area, one the slugger appeared to reaggravate during pregame batting practice.
By the end of the game, Martinez was already en route back to Los Angeles, where Roberts said he will get an MRI on Wednesday. The plan is for Martinez to then receive “some type of shot,” Roberts said, which the team hopes will allow him to finish the year without going on the injured list.
“He’ll be down for a couple days,” Roberts said, “and our expectation is he should be back sometime this weekend.”
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