Editorials

Urias Makes Home Debut as Trayce Thompson Wins Another One

All Dodgers fans had their attention turned to Chavez Ravine on a picturesque Tuesday night as 19-year-old Julio Urias made his home debut for the Boys in Blue.



Despite using six pitchers, the Dodgers survived the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night by scoring a win, 4-3. A Trayce Thompson walk-off shot in the bottom of the ninth inning was the difference.

The significance of Urias was only downplayed for a short while the pitcher allowed Rockies outfielder Ryan Raburn (double) and third baseman Nolan Arenado (walk) to reach base in the first inning, but came back to strike out outfielder Carlos Gonzalez and shortstop Trevor Story.

In the bottom half of the first inning, the Dodgers threatened with back-to-back walks by second baseman Chase Utley and shortstop Corey Seager before third baseman Justin Turner smashed an Eddie Butler pitch deep to left field to give the Dodgers a 3-0 lead.

That would only be the start of a nightmare for Butler as he walked first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and Thompson before getting out of the inning on a fielder’s choice by center fielder Joc Pederson and an unassisted double play off the bat of left fielder Howie Kendrick by Rockies second baseman D.J. LeMahieu.

Urias would settle down in the second inning and retire all three Rockies he faced in that frame.

The Mexican phenom worked his way out of trouble in the third inning despite a double from Arenado, who recorded his National League-leading 49th run batted in.

Julio Urias learning on the Fly in Trial by Fire

After four innings and seven strikeouts, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had seen enough as he lifted Urias for the evening. Urias threw 86 pitches, the most in any start Urias has ever had (minor leagues included). Louis Coleman came in for relief to start the fifth inning.

Evaluating Dave Roberts’ Most Criticized Decisions

Coleman provided little relief as he could only retire one of the five batters he faced before Roberts brought in Adam Liberatore to get out of a bases loaded jam.

The Rockies made the game interesting in the top of the seventh when pinch hitter Daniel Descalso crushed a home run to left field off Dodgers reliever Joe Blanton to cut the score to 3-2 in favor of Los Angeles.

When Arenado came up for his third plate appearance with Raburn on first, he was robbed of a hit on an over-the-shoulder highlight catch by Seager, who promptly threw the ball into the Rockies dugout. Raburn advanced to third on the throwing error by Seager, which came back to bite the Dodgers.

Roberts brought in Pedro Baez to face Carlos Gonzalez, who smoked an infield single to score Raburn from third to tie the game at 3 before Thompson sent the Dodgers faithful home safely with his walk-off solo home run. Kenley Jansen picked up the win for the Dodgers, while Carlos Estevez took the loss.

Twitter had an interesting night of reactions to Urias recording the most strikeouts by a Dodgers teenager since Don Drysdale struck out nine batters in 1956.

The Dodgers will wrap up their three-game set with the Rockies. Kenta Maeda will look for his sixth win of the season as he opposes Rockies left-hander Chris Rusin.

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Noah Friedman

Native Angeleno, adopted Phoenician. I'm going into my junior year at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. I study sports journalism while covering a multitude of Sun Devils sports. Follow me on Twitter @OPannouncer!

4 Comments

  1. First off, Roberts did not deprive the kid of his first win. He had made almost 90 pitches in 4 innings. He is 19, no need to stretch him out like that. Second, being 19, he has not yet learned how to keep his pitch count at a level that will allow him to go 5. Better yet, 6 or7. The bullpen blew the lead, and the Dodger offense went to sleep after the first inning. They hit into 4 double plays and killed any chance of getting the kid the cushion he needed to go 5. They made some good defensive plays, got clutch outs, but Mr. Unreliable, Pedro Baez gave up the tying run. Jansen shut them down in the 9th, and with 2 outs Trayce Thompson hit the clincher. Thompson is starting to be the most reliable bat in the lineup. He also is brining back memory’s of what another RF did a few years ago with walk off hits….Andre Ethier had 6, and 3 of them were HR’s. Trayce has 2, and it is only June.

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