The Los Angeles Dodgers pushed Julio Urías back two days from his originally scheduled start and had an innings limit in place because of a left index finger, but he eased any concern with a scoreless performance against the Oakland Athletics.
Some of Urías’ familiar troubles in the first inning began to surface then the A’s put two on with one out, but he induced a double play to wiggle out of the jam. Overall, he held the Athletics to three hits and one walk while collecting five strikeouts in five innings.
Emmet Sheehan then completed a four-inning save in his first career relief appearance.
“Everybody knows all the difficulties I have in the first inning, so I tried to put that focus and onus on that first inning,” Urías said through an interpreter. “Try to make adjustments, and try to make pitches and sequences. And also talking through it with the coaching staff as we went further into the game.
“Obviously, the most important thing is a win. We’re happy with the victory.”
On the season Urías is now 8-6 with a 4.69 ERA and 1.18 WHIP in 16 starts. He’s fallen well short of expectations and also missed time because of a left hamstring strain, but believes better results are ahead.
“There’s been a lot of inconsistency throughout the year, but I’m feeling like myself on the mound and I feel like I’m stronger,” Urías said. “So those inconsistencies aren’t as prevalent as they were in the past. I feel really good about where I’m at right now.”
The 26-year-old expressed a similar sentiment after throwing six shutout innings against the New York Mets in his first start after the All-Star break. However, that was followed by giving up a career-worst eight runs to the Baltimore Orioles.
Next for Urías is a scheduled start Monday at Petco Park in the series finale against the San Diego Padres.
Dodgers relying on Julio Urías
Even with his struggles throughout much of the season, the Dodgers have maintained confidence Urías will round into form by the time the postseason begins.
“This is who he is,” Roberts said. “If we can build on this on Monday, we’re in a good spot. The expectation is for Julio to go deeper, but it was my decision, given the workload prior to the start.”
Freddie Freeman added: “He’s huge for us. Hopefully he can build off of that. I’m sure he wanted to stay in longer than he did, but Emmet came in right behind him with four solid innings. We need Julio.”
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