When the Los Angeles Dodgers placed Julio Urías on the 15-day injured list May 20 because of a left hamstring strain, the expectation was he would be activated once eligible.
Because Urías IL stint was backdated to May 19, the soonest he could return was during a series with the New York Yankees from June 2-4. Urías didn’t end up recovering quickly enough for that to become true, and even after an initial ramping-up process, his return was delayed due to lingering soreness in the left hamstring.
He has since reset and recently made a rehab start for Single-A Rancho Cucamonga. Manager Dave Roberts said Urías remains in good health and is poised to return to the Dodgers rotation on Saturday for a start against the Kansas City Royals, via SportsNet LA:
“I think it’s going to be Saturday. Pitched really well in Rancho, feels good coming out of it and it was really good stuff. He showed really well, so good to have him on track.”
All told, Urías will have missed six weeks because of them hamstring injury. When he last pitched in a Major League game, the 26-year-old allowed four home runs to the St. Louis Cardinals across just three innings. Three of the homers Urías surrendered came consecutively.
Overall this season, the left-hander is just 5-4 with a 4.39 ERA, 5.32 FIP and 1.16 WHIP in 10 starts. It’s been a disappointing year thus far as Urías heads into free agency for the first time in his career.
His return nevertheless will be a boon for a Dodgers starting rotation that has relied on three rookies at various points and may lose Clayton Kershaw to the IL.
Julio Urías looking to build on start with Quakes
Urías threw 60 pitches over four innings in the Quakes’ 7-1 win this past Sunday.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had said the plan for Urías was to complete four innings or stretch out to 60 pitches in his first game action since going on the IL.
Urías struck out eight of 15 batters faced and held the Lake Elsinore Storm (San Diego Padres affiliate) to just two hits and one run. He was particularly pleased with throwing a fist-pitch strike to 11 batters and mentioned that as one of the keys he wanted to continue once back with the Dodgers.
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