Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After dropping the opening game of the series against the Guardians, the Dodgers bounced back thanks to their offense getting back on track by cruising to a 7-1 victory to make tomorrow a rubber match.
Of course, the pitching was great as well, and Julio Urias continued his underrated season.
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Urias has had somewhat of an underrated year in terms of results, mainly because he’s unexpectedly become a dinger surrendering machine in 2022, shown by his 2.80 ERA and 4.57 FIP entering today. However, his 3.35 xERA shows that he’s been both a bit lucky and unlucky in different ways, but has been solid overall.
While he looked shaky to start things in the 1st with back-to-back walks and then an error by Max Muncy costing him an unearned run, he quickly rebounded and seemed more like the pitcher we expected to see this year. Following the aforementioned walks, Urias retired 14 of the next 16 batters, with only the error and an infield single ruining that run.
He did get some help from Chris Taylor on defense.
A lead-off double started the 6th against him, but he proceeded to go fly out, strikeout, and pop out to render that meaningless as well.
Urias lowered his ERA to 2.56 in a great start: 6 IP, 2 H, 1 R (0 ER), 2 BB, 6 K.
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Truthfully, Urias’ biggest problem this year has been getting run support, and Cal Quantrill has had a good season in 2022, but the Dodgers lineup finally broke through a bit against him.
He was put under pressure early in the 1st with back-to-back two out singles to corner the runners, but the RISP struggles continued and there was nothing doing. However, in the 2nd they got their long overdue crooked number. Cody Bellinger started with a single and a Taylor double made it a prime chance, but after a strikeout it sorta looked like so many chances for the Dodgers before. Thankfully, Austin Barnes got a productive out with a sacrifice fly to tie the game and then Trea Turner came through by drilling his ninth homer of the year for a 3-1 lead.
The runs continued to come in the 3rd when Muncy walked and the struggling Justin Turner drilled a double for a run. After two outs, it looked like the rally would die with a RISP again, but Gavin Lux came through and a roped a triple down the line in right to make it 5-1.
Quantrill exited after five, and in the 6th the Dodgers got another run off the Guardian pen. It was a grind, as it came via a Barnes walk, Freddie Freeman single, Muncy walk, and then a JT walk to force a run in. They added another in the 7th on back-to-back walks from Lux and Barnes and then a throwing error by pitcher Nick Sandlin on a Freeman comebacker that he deflected to make it 7-1.
All that said, if you notice, there still were a ton of missed chances, and the Dodgers went 2-for-14 with RISP, left 11 on base, and really it was only Lux’s triple that scored a run with a ball in play.
At least the pen maybe seems to be getting back on track, with David Price getting a clean 7th and Phil Bickford following with one of his own in the 8th.
A Reyes Moronta sighting came in the 9th, and he got a clean inning of his own to lock down the win.
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They have gotten to 40 wins now with 24 losses, and are temporarily leading in the NL West on tiebreaker against the Padres, who are playing now.
The series finale is tomorrow at a 10:10 AM HT/1:10 PM PT/4:10 PM ET with Andrew Heaney making his return against a fearsome Shane Bieber.
