Dodgers’ Julio UrÃas continues superb season, and Gabe Kapler saw it coming
SAN FRANCISCO — Giants manager Gabe Kapler envisioned nights like Saturday’s long ago, back when he was the Dodgers’ director of player development and a young promising left-hander was beginning to emerge in the club’s minor-league system.
Julio UrÃas, of course, was no stranger to anyone in the Giants dugout coming into Saturday’s Game 2 in the National League Division Series, not after the Dodgers left-hander made five starts against them during the regular season.
But Kapler’s history with UrÃas ran the deepest.
“You’re starting to see the guy that you sort of dreamed of,†Kapler said. “One of the better left-handed starters in baseball.â€
Cody Bellinger and AJ Pollock hit two-run doubles in the sixth inning, sparking the Dodgers to a 9-2 victory over the Giants in Game 2 of the NLDS.
UrÃas made good on that claim hours later, silencing the Giants lineup during a five-inning, one-run, five-strikeout start in the Dodgers’ 9-2 win at Oracle Park.
After stranding a two-out double in the first and yielding a sacrifice fly in the second, UrÃas settled down to protect the Dodgers’ early lead, retiring 12 of the final 13 batters he faced in an impressive 72-pitch start that ended when he was pinch-hit for during the Dodgers’ four-run rally in the sixth.
“It’s growth and experience,†Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “where Julio has really done a good job of focusing his energy into just making pitches.â€
Saturday was the continuation of what has been UrÃas’ best season in the majors, one in which the 25-year-old capitalized upon his first stint as full-time member of the starting rotation over a full-length schedule by posting a 2.96 ERA and major league best 20 wins in 32 starts.
Dave Roberts’ bold decisions with the Dodgers’ starting lineup for Game 2 proved critical in helping the team secure a series-tying win over the Giants.
It’s been the type of campaign Kapler — who was his tenure as the Dodgers’ farm director from 2014 to 2017, coinciding with UrÃas’ most formative minor-league seasons and eventual MLB debut — always believed UrÃas was capable of, sending the second-year Giants manager down memory lane when asked about the pitcher during a pregame news conference on Saturday.
“I remember thinking about [Corey] Seager and UrÃas, these guys are both going to be excellent Major League players,†Kapler said. “At the time it was like, ‘Who is going to be the better Major Leaguer,’ knowing that they were both going to be great.â€
Kapler said he thought shoulder injuries early in UrÃas’ career belied his true talent.
UrÃas pitched in just eight games between 2017 and 2018, then was a member of the Dodgers bullpen in 2019.
Over the last two years, however, UrÃas has cemented himself as a mainstay in the Dodgers rotation. And after Clayton Kershaw’s season-ending elbow injury at the end of the regular-season, his role in the playoff rotation became even more crucial too.
UrÃas didn’t give the Giants much to work with Saturday, cruising with a three-pitch mix of fastballs, curveballs and changeups.
Cody Bellinger seemed like the last player in the Dodgers’ lineup to spark a scoring surge until he did just that in NLDS Game 2 against the Giants.
Though the Giants made him work, fouling off plenty of pitches to drive up his pitch count, only four of the 14 balls they put in play were “hard hit†with an exit velocity above 95 mph.
“It felt good,†UrÃas said through an interpreter. “I thought the pitches were working well. It’s the sixth time I’ve seen them so it’s a little bit trickier to get through that lineup, but I felt good.â€
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