Dodgers 1 Giants 2: Welcome to the Dodgers Urias

Dodgers drop the series finale to the Giants and now sit in second place five games back.

Julio Urias was great this evening. He went 5 1/3 innings and only gave up four hits while striking out seven. Urias struggled in the first inning. He was missing his spots and throwing way above the strike zone. He was pretty good at getting a hitter in an 0-2 count, but had a much harder time finishing it. He also has a tenancy to go deep into counts and not dominate the batters. With all of that being said, he also struck out seven Giants. Urias gave up two earned runs when Joe Panik singled to right in the bottom of the sixth inning and then Brandon Belt homered to right. Before those two hits, Urias had only given up two hits all night. Urias now has 21 K’s in just 17 innings of work. With his addition to the rotation, the Dodgers starting rotation now has the fifth best ERA in the majors. It is nice to see Urias finally begin to establish himself with the big club.

Jake Peavy shut the Dodgers down for the most part, except for Chase Utley. Peavy went six innings, allowed just four hits and struck out three batters. Utley had three of those hits. In the top of the sixth inning, Utley reached on an infield single and was called out thanks to Peavy making a tag and doing a somersault. The Dodgers called for a review and it was overturned! Unfortunately the Dodgers did not do anything with his lead off hit.

After the Giants scored two in the bottom of the sixth inning, Joc Pederson would strike back in the top of the seventh when he hit a solo shot into McCovey Cove for a splash hit home run. That hit finally got the Dodgers on the board, but they still trailed by a score of 2-1.

Its not that the Dodgers were not seeing the ball or hitting the ball hard, they just kept hitting the ball directly at defenders. It almost felt like the Giants had 12 people out on the field at times because they just seemed to be everywhere, yet always at the right spot. Justin Turner also had a rough day. He got an error in the bottom of the fourth inning when a routine ground ball rolled right under his glove. Before that happened, Turner tried to catch a pop fly in the infield and Corey Seager was near him to back him up, but it looked like Turner was calling the ball the whole way. Both guys watched it fall in between them for a base hit. Then in the top of the eighth inning with Seager on first, Turner looked at strike three down the middle. He exchanged some words with the home plate ump and got tossed for it. All around it was a super frustrating game to watch Turner play at third.

The Dodgers are now 7-12 in one run games. It is so tough knowing it is just one run, but not being able to bounce back from it. The Dodgers failed to do that again tonight and now trail the Dodgers by five games in second place.

They will be heading to Chase Field in Phoenix Arizona to face the Arizona Diamondbacks for a three game series starting tomorrow. First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 PM tomorrow.