When Julio Urias was called up from Triple-A Oklahoma City for his Major League debut, it wasn’t expected to be much more than a spot start. While the Dodgers figured to utilize the young left-hander this season, May 27 appeared much too soon to begin down that road.
Fast forward one month, and the Dodgers seemingly can’t afford to remove Urias from the rotation. He’s largely been on a start-to-start basis over his past few turns, with his June 22 outing against the Washington Nationals once set as a soft deadline.
However, prior to that start, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the club’s top pitching prospect would make at least one more start in the Majors. That came Tuesday night against the Milwaukee Brewers when Urias earned his first career win.
Although he walked a career-high six batters he held the Brewers to just two runs over six innings and threw 100 pitches, both of which set career highs.
As the Dodgers continue to face questions in the rotation, with Clayton Kershaw now among them, Urias is being kept with the big league club for the next 10 days, per Andy McCullough of the LA Times:
Julio Urias will stay in the rotation through the All-Star break.
— Andy McCullough (@McCulloughTimes) June 29, 2016
Since starting off 0-1 while giving up nine runs in 7.2 innings in his first two starts, Urias has allowed seven runs in 25.1 innings (2.49 ERA) in his last five starts. Aside from the command issues he suffered from against the Brewers, Urias has shown better command of his pitches and the strike zone.
Overall this season, the Mexican native is 1-2 with a 4.09 ERA, 3.61 FIP, 1.46 WHIP and 41 strikeouts. Between time spent with Oklahoma Cityand the Dodgers, he’s thrown a combined 74 innings on the season. Urias’ career high is 87.2 innings, set in 2014 with High-A Rancho Cucamonga.
