Dodgers 3, Brewers 2: Julio Urias was great, Justin Turner was better

The Dodgers won an extra-inning affair against the Brewers tonight, 3-2, scratching back late thanks to a solo offensive effort from Justin Turner and Julio Urias turning in an excellent start.

The most frustrating part of the 2016 team has been how winnable so many of the games they’ve dropped were, but they just couldn’t figure out a way to get the job done. Well, today they got the job done, and hopefully they can start doing so on a regular basis now.

—–

But let’s start with the kid on the mound.

Julio Urias is 19. Julio Urias threw five shutout innings on 85 pitches. Julio Urias scattered five hits and a walk. Julio Urias struck out eight and picked off a man. Julio Urias is 19.

3-2 backdoor curve for the strikeout. Julio Urias is 19. I think he might be decent.

As far as supporting that maybe kinda sorta decent 19-year-old on the mound was a Dodgers offense that shockingly struck first for once in the first inning behind a Turner two-out bomb halfway up the left-field pavilion.

Unfortunately, that was about it for a Dodgers offense through seven innings. Including Turner’s bomb, the offense totaled just five hits and a walk, which opened the door for the Brewers.

In relief of Urias, Louis Coleman entered the game with a one-run lead in the sixth, but immediately surrendered that. Coleman retired just one batter on his way to surrendering three hits and two runs. Adam Liberatore had to be brought in to get the last two outs of the inning, and while he did give up one of Coleman’s runs, he kept the deficit at 2-1 and prevented the game from running away from the Dodgers.

Joe Blanton and J.P. Howell were then tasked with the seventh and eighth innings, respectively, and both did their job to continue to keep the Dodgers offense within their general striking distance of a whopping one run.

In the eighth inning, the Dodgers finally were able to get a second run after JT turned on a hanging 3-2 curve and blasted it over the left-field fence to tie the game at 2-2.

Kenley Jansen got a scoreless ninth inning, seemingly getting over whatever struggles he had in San Francisco, and Pedro Baez even came in to contribute a scoreless 10th frame.

In the bottom of the tenth, new signee Will Venable, who surely has just been playing possum for two-plus years now, ripped a ground-rule double down the right-field line. A.J. Ellis then came up and bunted, which seems like the wrong move, but is actually defensible mathematically.

https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/744042442828226561

If not by sheer math, then consider the context of A.J. being one of the worst hitters on the team and the top of the order coming up behind him, and it certainly made sense.

The Brewers then responded by walking both Chase Utley and Corey Seager intentionally, which setup a bases loaded and one out situation for JT. Turner thankfully played hero for the Dodgers, yanking a hung 0-2 curve down the left-field line for a walk-off single and ending the game at 3-2.

Turner is finally coming around, and it couldn’t come at a better time.

—–

With the win, the Dodgers improve to 36-33 overall and 18-15 at home.

The Dodgers get the Brewers again tomorrow night at 4:10 PM HST/7:10 PM PST/10:10 PM EST, and the pitching matchup will be Mike Bolsinger against Chase Anderson.