Urías shows how far he’s come
On May 21, 2021, Luis Urías’ struggles at the plate and in the field prompted the Milwaukee Brewers to execute a rare midMay trade to acquire a starting shortstop to replace him.
On May 21, 2022, Urías dazzled with both bat and glove in a reminder of why he is one of the most promising pieces of the Brewers future – and present.
Urías homered as part of a two-hit, two-run day while helping starting pitcher Brandon Woodruff get off on the right foot en route to his best outing in a month as the Brewers defeated the Washington Nationals, 5-1, Saturday night at American Family Field.
Milwaukee is off to its best start through 40 games in franchise history at 26-14.
“He played just an all-around good game tonight,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “He affected us defensively and with the bat.”
Urías, who turns 25 in June, has reached base safely in all 16 games since returning from the injured list and extended his overall streak to 19 contests with a first-inning single. His OPS is up to .874, tops among Brewers regulars, but Milwaukee was just as impressed with his glove work on the night at a position where he made nine errors in 38 games last year before the team acquired Willy Adames from Tampa Bay to take over at short.
On the game’s second batter, Urías made a ranging play on a grounder to his left, spun and threw a strike to first to retire Juan Soto. Two hitters later, he made a sliding basket catch with his back to the infield in shallow center to end a Washington rally.
“The (final) play in the first was brilliant,” Counsell said. “It just gets Woody back in the dugout with kind of an easy inning. He made a couple of nice plays. It was a great all-around game.”
The plays aided Woodruff, who went six innings for just the second time this season and allowed one run on a Lane Thomas solo homer in the third. Woodruff picked up his major-league lead-tying fifth win of the season but it hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows for the Brewers righty on the mound through eight starts.
He had allowed at least three runs in each of his last four starts, including a forgettable six-run outing against the Reds on May 9, and entered Saturday with a 5.35 earned run average. Woodruff’s problems have largely been twofold: putting hitters away with two strikes and allowing homers. While those flared up occasionally against the Nationals –Thomas’ homer came on an 0-2 pitch – the Brewers are starting to see the version of Woodruff they have become quite familiar with.
“Just executing a little bit better,” Woodruff said. “I’m getting to a point now with my delivery where I’m feeling more comfortable. I feel like I’m moving the way I should be and in turn, that helps take the command up a little bit. I think once I can do that and then just reading swings a little bit better, I think a combination of all that has kind of helped out.
“So nothing groundbreaking, just getting into the season. And it’s such a long year and just trying to make pitches. That’s all I’m trying to do.”
For the second time this year, Andrew McCutchen ambushed the first pitch of a game from a lefty for a homer. McCutchen did it earlier in the season off Pittsburgh’s Jose Quintana, then Saturday jumped on a sinker from Patrick Corbin and drove it out to right field.
“There’s no point in waiting around,” McCutchen said.
Urías followed with a first-pitch single and scored on a Hunter Renfroe sacrifice fly to make it 2-0.
Corbin retired 12 of 13 hitters until Urías’ third homer of the year with one out in the fifth extended Milwaukee’s lead to 3-1. The next four batters all reached and it was Keston Hiura’s bases-loaded single that scored Christian Yelich and Renfroe that pushed the lead to four.
Brad Boxberger worked out of a tight spot in the seventh when the Nationals loaded the bases against him with two outs and Soto on deck. Boxberger won a nine-pitch battle with César Hernández by blowing a 94 mph fastball by him for a swinging strike three.
With Soto looming as a potential goahead run once again in the ninth, the Brewers turned to Josh Hader for the final out with two men on base. Hader extended his major-league record for consecutive outings with a save to start a season to 15 by getting Riley Adams to pop out to end the contest.
“Any time you have a player like that on the other team, you don’t want them up,” Counsell said. “That’s about bringing Josh in there and trying to not let Soto hit there; it’s the same thing.
“Hernandez had a nice at-bat there. I think Box left the strong zone because he got in swing mode there. He made a good pitch.”