Column: Julio Urías is the ace the Dodgers desperately need. He just needs to pitch like it
Some time during the next month, the Dodgers have to trade for a starting pitcher, maybe even two.
They have to look for experience. They have to search for depth.
What they don’t have to find is a No. 1 starter. They already have an ace.
Julio Urías just has to pitch like one again.
The forever-youthful Urías is now 26 and in his eighth major league season. He was the team’s Game 1 starter in the postseason last year and opening day starter this year.
The 36-year-old right-hander sprained the medial collateral ligament in his right knee while earning a save Wednesday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
This should be his season.
The stakes are as high for Urías as they are for the Dodgers, the Mexican left-hander on track to be a first-time free agent in the winter.
He wants the kind of nine-figure deal that is awarded to an ace?
He just has to pitch like one again.
Urías was encouraged by his most recent start, in which he picked up his first win in nearly two months by limiting the Pittsburgh Pirates to three hits over six innings on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium.
The final inning he pitched in the 5-2 victory convinced him his up-and-down, start-and-go season was finally on track.
“I felt a click,” he said in Spanish.
Urías continued: “I feel it’s something I can take into the second half [of the season] to have a good second half. I felt something on the mound in that last inning. It’s something very positive.”
The Dodgers have barely played half of their games, but when it comes to their starting pitching, a trade needs to be made, the sooner the better.
Last year, Urías was 9-1 with a 1.26 earned-run average during the 13 starts he made after the All-Star break.
Urías entered his start against the Pirates with a 5-5 record and 4.94 ERA. The game was only his second after returning from a strained hamstring that sidelined him for six weeks.
He was considerably sharper than he was five days earlier in Kansas City, when he was charged with five runs in only three innings.
“Coming in after a start like the last one,” Urías said, “I put all my focus on this game.
“I attacked.”
Of his first five innings, four were perfect.
The exception was the second inning, in which David Peralta misread a batted ball by Jack Suwinski that resulted in a double and led to a pair of runs for the visitors.
Clayton Kershaw joined the long list of Dodgers pitchers on the injured list Monday, though the problem with his shoulder is not believed to be serious.
Urías responded better than he did in Kansas City, where he unraveled after he was betrayed by his defense.
“Those are things that happen in a game,” Urías said. “None of my teammates want to make errors.”
Manager Dave Roberts said, “He’s as good as we have, along with [Clayton Kershaw], as far as not letting things he can’t control affect him.”
Because Urías was activated just last week, Roberts said before the game he would be limited to around 90 pitches. He finished with 88.
Nonetheless, Urías finished with eight strikeouts.
“This,” Roberts said, “is Julio.”
And this is the version of Urías the Dodgers will need to compensate for what’s happened to their pitching staff.
Kershaw is on the injured list again. Tony Gonsolin looks nothing like the All-Star pitcher he was last year. Dustin May is scheduled to undergo a season-ending operation. Noah Syndergaard isn’t a major league-caliber pitcher anymore. The team’s other starters are youngsters on limited pitch counts.
Someone has to deliver seven-inning starts on a consistent basis to unburden the team’s overworked bullpen. That someone has to be Urías.
Urías completed seven innings during two of his three starts before the game in St. Louis in which he was injured. Still, up to that point, his season was marked by an alarming degree of inconsistency, as the 14 homers he allowed through May 18 were tied for the most in the major leagues.
“I just think that when Julio is exceptional, [the key is] his command and his secondary pitches are where they’re supposed to be located, at the bottom of the strike zone,” Roberts said. “And when it hasn’t been going well and [he’s] given up homers, he’s been behind in counts and balls have been up.”
Roberts saw on Thursday what he hoped he would see. The manager said he believes in Urías, but the truth of the matter is that he has no choice but to believe in him.
No. 1 pitchers don’t grow on trees. There isn’t an ace tree the Dodgers can shake before the Aug. 1 trade deadline. They can acquire some pitching depth in the coming weeks, but they almost certainly won’t be adding an ace — unless, of course, Urías starts pitching like one again.
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