After announcing that Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers’ best pitcher for the first half of the season, would miss more time than expected with a shoulder injury, manager Dave Roberts fielded a couple follow-up queries Friday afternoon.
One was about the team’s seemingly increased need for starting pitching help at the deadline.
The other was about an equally important hope the club’s other starters — Julio Urías and Tony Gonsolin chief among them — could rediscover top form down the stretch this season.
The former, Roberts downplayed. The latter, he couldn’t emphasize enough.
“It would certainly be helpful,” Roberts said. “ I think they’re both healthy and they both threw the heck out of it in their last turn. I’m looking forward to the next couple of days.”
Hours later, Roberts was treated to a show by Urías, who blanked the New York Mets over six shutout, one-hit innings in the Dodgers’ 6-0 victory at Citi Field.
It was a second-straight sign of promise from Urías, the left-hander following up a six-inning, two-run start prior to the All-Star break with what was unquestionably his best start of the season.
After giving up a double to the first batter he faced, Urías mowed through a high-priced, under-performing Mets lineup. He retired 18 of 21 batters the rest of the way, the three exceptions coming on a walk, hit by pitch and catcher’s interference. He struck out seven while throwing only 85 pitches, exiting the mound with a four-run lead.
The Dodgers (52-38) did most of their damage in the fifth. After being held hitless through four frames by Justin Verlander, who was one of L.A.’s top targets last winter before signing with the Mets (42-49), three straight walks by the bottom of the lineup set up Mookie Betts for an RBI single and Freddie Freeman for an RBI double.
J.D. Martinez, right, celebrates with teammate David Peralta after hitting a solo home run in the Dodgers’ 6-0 win over the New York Mets at Citi Field on Friday.
(Mary Altaffer / Associated Press)
The team tacked on another run in the sixth, on an RBI single from Miguel Rojas.
They then cruised from there, the bullpen putting the finishing touches on a one-hit masterpiece.
Entering Saturday, Urías had looked little like the two-time Cy Young contender he’d been the previous two seasons.
During his first two months, he had a 4.39 ERA and the most home runs allowed in the majors. Then, he missed six weeks with a hamstring strain, further derailing his final season before free agency.
His return from the injured list wasn’t encouraging, a five-run, three-inning start against last-place Kansas City on July 1.
Since then, however, he has been lights out, giving the Dodgers the ace-caliber performances they’ll need from him the rest of the way — regardless of if they make a big trade deadline splash.
Gonsolin is in a similar boat. After missing the opening month with a sprained ankle, then posting a 3.86 ERA through his first 13 starts (only four of which went six innings), the 2022 All-Star enters the second half of the season with plenty of room to improve, especially as the team’s No. 2 starter in the rotation with Kershaw sidelined.
He’ll get his chance to stage a turnaround Saturday, hoping to build off improvements he flashed in a season-long 6⅔-inning start prior to the All-Star break.
On Friday night, Urías gave him a template to follow, tapping back into a long-awaited, tantalizingly dominant recipe.
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