Urias, Barnes rejoin Dodgers after `special' time at WBC
GLENDALE, ARIZ. » Julio Urias has thrown the final pitch of a World Series. But participating for Team Mexico in the World Baseball Classic “was something really special.”
“Honestly, you just have to live it in order to be able to feel it,” he said in Spanish.
“The atmosphere — there are so many media members (like at a World Series). You have people from all over the world. But it's a whole different experience. It's something that is hard to describe, you just have to live it. Obviously during the World Series I was able to throw the last pitch, but this was just different. There are no words to describe the feeling.”
Urias and his Team Mexico teammate Austin Barnes rejoined the Dodgers at Camelback Ranch on Wednesday after reaching the semifinals before losing to eventual champion Team Japan in Miami.
“It was a great time. You don't get to play those types of baseball games that many times in your life, really, besides the playoffs,” Barnes said. “It was just a really cool experience to see how much baseball meant to each team really.
“Especially when it became win or go home, it was very much like a playoff game. Just emotions running high and the intensity of the games.”
Urias made two starts in the WBC, pitching a total of nine innings, and is scheduled to start Friday's Cactus League game against the Milwaukee Brewers as a final tuneup before an expected Opening Day assignment.
“It's a different level of pressure, a different level of atmosphere, but you just have to focus on yourself and how you want to execute,” Urias said of how the WBC experience will affect his preparation for the season. “I know my next start I have some work to do here so I don't think it's going to affect me.”
All of the players returning from the WBC will have an adjustment to make to playing with a pitch clock.
The clock as well as shift restrictions and bigger bases were not used during the WBC.
“It's different, (it will) speed the game up again a little bit here,” Barnes said. “We threw like two pitches and took four mound visits in one of the games, so it'll be a little bit different.”
The Dodgers have not made the Opening Day decision official and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts claimed Wednesday that
Dodgers starting pitcher Julio Urias helped Mexico reach the semifinal round of the World Baseball Classic before losing to eventual champion Japan. Urias and Austin Barnes rejoined the Dodgers on Wednesday.
he hasn't spoken with the unnamed starter about it yet. Urias was willing to keep the secret for a few more days.
“My focus is on Friday, honestly,” he said. “After Friday we can definitely talk.”
Team USA
Team USA teammates Mookie Betts and Will Smith traveled back from Miami on Wednesday and are expected to rejoin the Dodgers at Camelback Ranch on Thursday. Roberts said he plans to have Smith in the lineup for today's Cactus League game against the Arizona Diamondbacks and four of the
Dodgers' remaining seven preseason games (including the Freeway Series).
“There's going to be, I'm certain, a little bit of a letdown in this environment after what those other guys have been through (playing in the WBC),” Roberts said. “I am mindful of Will. He got to be a part of it but didn't play that much. He's still got to get ready, log innings behind the plate and take at-bats.”
Smith was 5 for 14 with a double in five Cactus League games before leaving to join Team USA. But he got just 10 at-bats in three games over two weeks in the WBC.
GAME RECAP Starter spot
Right-hander Tony Gonsolin could test his injured left ankle by throwing off a mound sometime next week. But Roberts acknowledged that the injury was enough of a setback that Gonsolin will not be ready to join the Dodgers' starting rotation for “a few weeks” into the season.
Right-handers Ryan Pepiot and Michael Grove are vying to fill Gonsolin's spot at the start of the season and Roberts said the competition between the two is “really close” and “there's really no wrong decision” when choosing ninth inning for the Dodgers’ other hit.
DEFENSE REPORT: The Dodgers threw out two runners on the bases. In the first inning, right fielder James Outman charged a ground ball single by Ty France and threw Kolten Wong out trying to go first to third on the hit. In the third, Julio Rodriguez doubled over Outman’s head and tried to stretch it into a triple. He was out at third base on a relay from Outman to Miguel Vargas to Max Muncy.
UP NEXT: Dodgers (RHP Michael Grove) vs. Diamondbacks (TBA) at Salt River Fields, Thursday, 1:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM between the two.
Also
• After Wednesday's game, the Dodgers made a handful of cuts, sending left-hander Justin Bruihl, infielder Yonny Hernandez, outfielder Ryan Ward, catchers Patrick Mazeika and David Freitas to minor-league camp. That leaves 45 players in camp plus three players on the 60-day injured list.
• Dino Ebel returned from his time on the Team USA staff and was back coaching third base for the Dodgers in Wednesday night's game.