No start, but good stuff by Urías
He comes out of the bullpen to pitch six innings against A’s, giving Roberts another playoff option.
OAKLAND 6, DODGERS 4
This time, the first inning troubles weren’t Julio Urías’ fault.
For the first time this season, someone else started on his day to pitch.
Urías was the scheduled starter for the Dodgers’ 6-4 loss against the Oakland A’s on Wednesday. But hours before the game, the team announced the left-hander would be shifted to the bullpen to throw bulk relief innings in a continued effort to prepare for all postseason potentialities.
“We don’t know how it’s going to play out, as far as the postseason,” Roberts said before the game, describing Wednesday’s 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.”
After Wednesday, Urías will have recent success to fall back on too.
Upon entering in the third inning, the 24-year-old looked sharp from the start — unburdened by his season-long first-inning struggles while producing the type of start-to-finish dominance Roberts has yearned for all year.
He retired 12 of his first 13 batters. He struck out five men 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. He responded in the eighth, completing his six-inning, one-run outing with a four-pitch frame.
By then, an early 3-0 deficit built against opener Joe Kelly had become a 4-4 tie thanks to home runs from Max Muncy, Cody Bellinger and Edwin Ríos. Though Ramon Laureano’s go-ahead two-run homer off Blake Treinen in the top of the ninth nullified the comeback, Urías’ display was what mattered most for a Dodgers team still finalizing its pitching plans.
“I can’t recall every outing that he’s had,” Roberts said, “but I thought this one was one of his best, as far as the entire pitch mix. I just really liked it. I thought there was a lot of good to take away from tonight.”
The Dodgers know Clayton Kershaw and Walker Buehler will pitch Games 1 and 2 in next week’s best-of-three wild-card round, though the order remains undecided. If the series reaches a decisive third game, however, the club’s choices are far more varied.
They could start Urías, who lowered his ERA to 3.27, or opt for Dustin May or Tony Gonsolin. A bullpen game including some mixture of those three is a possibility too.
Only one thing is clear: At least two of Urías, May and Gonsolin will come out of the bullpen. And after Urías’ relief appearance Wednesday, May and Gonsolin could get similar test runs in relief before the end of the regular season Sunday.
“We’ve stretched them out,” Roberts said, “to be able to take on bulk, to take on innings, but to be able to shorten if we need to shorten, to get them back online sooner.”
For Urías, this routine is nothing new. Last season, the lefthander started in only eight of his 37 outings and came out of the bullpen in each of his final eight appearances of the regular season — a precursor to his three relief appearances in the NLDS.
After returning from a year-long shoulder injury late in the 2018 season, Urías made three regular-season relief appearances in preparation for a World Series run that saw him pitch out of the bullpen seven times.
And after spending the majority of his rookie 2016 season in the Dodgers’ rotation, Urías made one relief appearance in late September and another in the NLDS before starting Game 4 of the NLCS.
Wednesday’s performance confirmed that versatility is still there, cementing Urías as one of the few Dodgers pitchers with both multiple years of playoff experience and the ability to pitch from the bullpen or the rotation.
“As a reliever, we’ve seen where in short bursts, an inning or two, to then come back and pitch a day later, the value of that,” Roberts said, adding postgame, “We view him as a starter … but I just love the way Julio has embraced whatever we ask of him. He’s all in.”