After suffering a walk-off loss in their series finale against the San Diego Padres, the Los Angeles Dodgers returned home on Monday and got back on track with a 5-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves.
With closer Kenley Jansen pitching in all three games at Petco Park, he was unavailable for Dodgers manager Dave Roberts in the series opener with the Braves, which made things a bit tricky given some of the bullpen’s struggles.
Fortunately, Walker Buehler turned in seven solid innings, so Roberts was only tasked with piecing together the last two to complete the win.
He went with Pedro Baez in the eighth, then Julio Urias in the ninth for his first career save. Both pitchers ended up tossing perfect innings and Roberts escaped without much stress.
After the game, he discussed why he decided to go with Baez in the eighth and Urias in the ninth as opposed to the opposite order, via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“I had Pedro up in the seventh, and felt that I wanted Pedro in that spot against the bottom of the order,” said Roberts. “With [left-handed hitters] Freeman and Markakis, I felt it was a good matchup for Julio. Put it all together and that order made the most sense. I trust Julio in that big spot.”
Urias seems to be earning Roberts’ trust more and more each time he takes the mound despite not having much experience as a relief pitcher.
With his fastball playing up to 98 mph out of the bullpen, it is hard not to have faith in the 22-year-old in high-leverage situations. Particularly with other relievers, such as Joe Kelly and even Jansen struggling a bit.
It will be interesting to see if Urias continues to be called upon in those high-leverage situations considering the original plan was for him to pitch multiple innings out of the bullpen.
