Julio Urías gives up career-high eight runs in Dodgers’ loss to Orioles
BALTIMORE — In the first inning, he kicked at a soggy mound in frustration.
In the third, he snapped at himself while shouting into his mitt.
In the fifth, he simply hung his head and walked somberly to the dugout.
By then, the damage already had been inflicted.
Pitcher Michael Grove delivered one of his best starts in his young career, giving up only one run as the Dodgers routed the Orioles 10-3 in Baltimore.
In perhaps the worst start of his career, Julio Urías ran the full gamut of emotions Wednesday in the Dodgers’ 8-5 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.
In five innings, he gave up a career-high eight runs. Of his 93 pitches, few were executed with command or precision.
Early on, it led to anger, Urías giving up four runs in the first to blow the Dodgers’ two-run lead.
Then, he showed disgust after yielding a pair of two-out runs in the third inning, the fifth time this season he’d been charged with at least five runs.
Things didn’t get any better for Urías, the Orioles (58-37) punctuating his day with a sacrifice fly in the fourth and solo home run in the fifth.
“My teammates gave me a lead in that first inning and I wasn’t able to hold it,” said Urías, whose earned-run average rose to 5.02. “I think that started all the frustration I had with my mechanics and the consistency of my throws. From the first inning, I just wasn’t able to respond.”
It wasn’t the performance the Dodgers (55-40) had been expecting from their opening day starter, not with Urías coming off the best two-game stretch of his inconsistent season.
He lacked feel for his slurve (it accounted for two extra-base hits and only one swing and miss) and life on his fastball (it averaged only 91.7 mph, more than a tick slower than his season norm).
He also looked visibly uncomfortable, struggling to settle into a game that was delayed 40 minutes so the Camden Yards grounds crew could fix the infield (it hadn’t been covered during a storm the night before), then was hit by warm summer showers for most of his four-run first inning.
“I just felt that the sharpness, the teethiness to the pitches was going to be there and today it just wasn’t,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I think no one’s more frustrated than Julio.”
The Dodgers chipped away at their deficit. James Outman hit a solo home run in the fourth, becoming the first left-handed hitter to clear the deep left-field wall the Orioles moved back at the start of last year.
Max Muncy launched a two-run blast in the fifth, snapping his one-for-22 slump coming out of the All-Star break.
Each time, however, the Orioles responded, dragging Urías’ up-and-down season into another sudden descent.
“It was just inconsistent with my release point; I was rushing my body,” Urías said. “Now it’s just time to watch the video and try to figure out what happened and feel like myself in five days.”
The Dodgers have been waiting for Urías to rediscover his old self all season, maintaining confidence he’ll push through his underwhelming and injury-plagued performance thus far.
Catcher Austin Barnes even took some of the responsibility Wednesday, saying he and Urías probably should have adjusted to attacking Orioles hitters — who were laying off his breaking stuff — with more inside pitches.
“Everybody still has the faith in Julio just to go out there, any game, just go out there and get a W,” Barnes said. “Today wasn’t our day.”
Chris Taylor hits a grand slam home run off Baltimore pitcher Bryan Baker in the sixth inning to push the Dodgers to a 6-4 victory at Camden Yards.
The Dodgers’ trip to Baltimore still was a success. They took two of three games from a club that had won eight straight. They headed to Texas to face the Rangers this weekend still holding on to a lead in the National League West.
But the Dodgers have bigger goals than narrow series wins over young, upstart teams. They’re trying to position themselves for October and make a deep run in the playoffs.
And in order to get there, they’ll need a better version of Urías than what they witnessed Wednesday.
“The fate of our ballclub [needs] him to pitch like a top-end guy, as he has in his career,” Roberts said. “It’s a work in progress right now. But I’m never going to bet against that guy.”
Marisnick on IL
Dodgers outfielder Jake Marisnick was placed on the injured list with a left hamstring strain, sidelining the veteran less than a week after the team signed him to provide depth in the outfield. In a corresponding move, the Dodgers called up outfielder Jonny DeLuca from triple-A Oklahoma City.
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