Dodgers: Julio Urias struggling when LAD need him most is frustrating

Want to play a fun game? It’s called “Find the Trustworthy Dodgers Player During This Brutal Stretch”.

Prior to Friday night, we would’ve pointed directly to Julio Urias, thanks in large part to his participation in last Sunday’s blowout, otherwise known as the only game this week that’s felt…right.

Unfortunately, entering the Interstate Series against the Angels, the Dodgers banked on some steadiness from Urias that they would not receive.

Though Los Angeles punched first with a…Matt Beaty RBI grounder (underwhelming), Urias gave it right back and then some right as his team was accruing momentum, allowing four runs in the second inning.

A shutdown inning would’ve been nice.

A chaos inning? Well, that was downright disrespectful from the one Dodger we’ve praised this week.

Dodgers starter Julio Urias did not deliver when LA needed a shutdown inning.

Nursing a 1-0 lead about as well as a napping babysitter, Urias gave up a leadoff home run to Justin Upton, than a two-out homer to Taylor Ward.

Then, the wheels fell off, no one tracked the wheels down, and the wheels sort of just…rolled around the parking lot, untethered.

Hit by pitch, Drew Butera double, two-run David Fletcher single. It never should’ve gotten to that point.

Do we expect perfection from Urias? Of course not. That’s unreasonable. He didn’t enter 2021 expected to front this rotation ahead of Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw and Trevor Bauer.

Through the first month of the season, though, he’s been a breath of fresh air. A shot of stability in a field of volatility, as players collapse around him nursing maladies and a lack of clutchness.

On Friday, when a steady start would’ve been essential, he did not provide one.

Do the Dodgers have time to rebound? Both over the course of the season and within the confines of these nine innings, of course.

At some point, though, someone on this roster is going to have to set a tone. We thought it’d be Urias in this outing.

Instead, he picked the baton gingerly out of the trash and passed it to someone else.

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