Julio Urías earns MLB best 17th win helping blank the Padres
By: Rowan Kavner
Tags: Dodgers, Postgame, Julio Urias, MLB, Max Muncy

(Photo by Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)

by Rowan Kavner

Pitcher wins may not hold the same weight they once did, but they mean something to Julio Urías and the Dodgers.

The left-hander earned his Major League-leading 17th win of the season Friday night, spinning seven scoreless innings against the Padres to snap the Dodgers’ two-game losing skid and start the homestand with a 3–0 victory.

For Urías, Friday was much of the same.

“Just tremendous growth,” said manager Dave Roberts. “The 17 wins, obviously leading the big leagues. He’s a front-line starter. When he takes the baseball, we expect to win.”

Urías is 6–0 with a 1.74 ERA since the All-Star break and 8–0 with a 1.67 ERA over his last 12 starts.

The Dodgers have won each of his last seven starts. Perhaps more noteworthy, he has followed a Dodger loss with a win in each of his last four starts.

“Looking at where we’ve been as far as starting pitching, it means a lot,” Roberts said. “To be able to go deep enough to get a decision, let alone a win for your ballclub, has been huge.”

Prior to this start, Urías provided the Dodgers their lone win of a three-game series in San Francisco by holding the Giants to a run. In Friday’s win, he followed up the Dodgers’ series-splitting defeat in St. Louis by striking out seven Padres batters and holding San Diego to three hits.

“It was really important to get back on track, really important to get ahead in this series,” Urías said through a translator.

Urías has already thrown more than twice as many innings this year as any previous season, so the Dodgers have limited his recent starts if innings get too stressful. He has not reached the 100-pitch mark since July 8, and he had not gone more than six innings in any of his last seven starts.

But he only needed 93 pitches to get through his seven innings Friday and improve to 17–3 on the season. While wins may not factor as much into the Cy Young conversation anymore, Urías now has a 1.23 ERA in his last nine starts and has not allowed more than two earned runs in a start in that time.

“For him to go deep tonight shows that growth and maturity,” Roberts said. “I can’t say enough about him.”

Urías’ efficient work Friday lowered his ERA for the year to 2.98. He joined teammates and Cy Young candidates Max Scherzer and Walker Buehler — MLB’s ERA leaders — among the National League’s 11 qualified pitchers with an ERA under 3.00.

The Dodgers have won each of Urías’ last seven starts, each of Scherzer’s last seven starts and five of Buehler’s last six starts. The production has been necessary both because of the absences in the rotation and because of an offense still scuffling.

Four Dodger hits were enough to secure the victory Friday against Joe Musgrove and the Padres. Max Muncy started the scoring with his 32nd home run of the year and his second in his last three games.

“Mechanically, I think sometimes he gets a little too out on his front side, but he and the hitting guys cleaned that up,” Roberts said. “When he gets his pitch, he’s not missing it now. All hitters go through a little funk once in a little while, but Max is right where he needs to be for the finish.”

A homer from Muncy and a sacrifice fly from Chris Taylor, who knocked in Will Smith after a fourth-inning double from the catcher, provided all the offense needed.

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