A’s take down Joe Kelly and the Dodgers
LOS ANGELES — This time, the first inning troubles weren’t Julio Urias’ fault.
For the first time this season, someone else started on his day to pitch.
Urias was originally scheduled to start in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 6-4 loss to the Oakland A’s on Wednesday. But hours before the game, the team announced the left-hander would be shifted to the bullpen instead, throwing bulk relief innings in the team’s continued effort to prepare for all postseason potentialities.
Joe Kelly instead began the game, allowing three quick runs to put the Dodgers in a hole that would take all night for them to dig out of.
Unburdened by his season-long first-inning struggles, Urias gave his offense the chance to do it.
Upon entering the game in the third, the 24-yearold retired 12 of his first 13 batters. He struck out five over his first four innings. Only in the seventh did he get into trouble, allowing the A’s to score on
two hits and a walk. Yet, he responded in the eighth, completing his six-inning, onerun outing with a four-pitch frame.
In what could be his final appearance of the regular season, Urias produced the start-to-finish dominance for which manager Dave Roberts has yearned. More importantly, he might have added another option to his team’s not-yet-finalized playoff pitching plans, giving his skipper perhaps one more card to play for when the stakes really start to rise.
The Dodgers know Clayton Kershaw and Walker Buehler will pitch Games 1 and 2 in next week’s opening best-ofthree wild card round, though they haven’t decided on the order. If the series reaches a third game, however, the club’s choices are far more varied.
They could start Urias, who lowered his ERA to 3.27, or opt for Dustin May or Tony Gonsolin. Depending on how the series unfolds, a bullpen game including some mixture of those three might not be out of the question either.
Only one thing is clear: At least two of Urias, May and Gonsolin will come out of the bullpen if they are to pitch in that opening round. And entering Wednesday, Urias was the only member of that trio yet to make a relief appearance this year.
“We don’t know how it’s going to play out, as far as the postseason,” Roberts said before the game, describing Wednesday’s late pitching change as a way “to give Julio an opportunity to potentially pitch out of the ‘pen. To feel it more recently is a good way to prepare.
“For him to go out of the ‘pen and see the rhythm of that is only going to be beneficial.”