Before Zack Greinke’s outstanding pitching performance on Wednesday evening against the Minnesota Twins in which he picked up his record-tying fifth win in the month of April; before Clayton Kershaw’s overwhelmingly successful rehab start on Wednesday afternoon with the Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts against the Tennessee Smokies in which he struck out nine batters in only five innings; there was another great pitching performance within the Dodgers organization on Wednesday morning – that of 17-year-old Mexican phenom Julio Urias of the Dodgers Advanced Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes.

Although the Quakes ended up losing the rare weekday matinee game to their rival Inland Empire 66ers by a score of 1-0, it most certainly wasn’t because of the hard-throwing left-handed Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico native. In fact, Urias pitched three strong innings without allowing a single Inland Empire batter to reach base while striking out five of the nine batters he faced.

So why did Quakes manager P.J. Forbes and pitching coach Matt Herges pull Urias when he was pitching a perfect game through three innings after making only 35 pitches (26 for strikes)? It was because of a hard combacker that struck Urias on his left bicep back in his second start of the season on April 9 .

Seventeen-year-old Julio Urias struggled after being hit in the arm by a comebacker on April 9, but after throwing three perfect innings on Wednesday it appears that he is once again healthy.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

In the days following the relatively minor injury, the discomfort from the contusion on Urias’s bicep spread to his left shoulder. Even though there was not structural damage, the shoulder discomfort created control problems limiting his next two starts limiting him to only 4.1 and 0.2 innings respectively. He was then shutdown and skipped his next scheduled start.

Urias left little doubt on Wednesday morning that his bicep and shoulder are now fine when he flat out dominated the hard-hitting 66ers team. The three-inning limit had been planned even before Urias made his first pitch of the game and the move was entirely precautionary.

Through his first five starts, Urias is 0-1 with a 5.93 ERA. He has allowed a total of nine earned runs with all but one of them coming after being struck by the line drive. He did not allow a run in his first game of the season, nor in Wednesday’s game leaving little doubt as to the cause of his brief control issues and the fact that he has walked 12 batters in his 13.2 innings of work. That being said, he also has 18 strikeouts on the young season.

If all goes as planned, Urias will make his next start on Monday, May 5 against the High Desert Mavericks at LoanMart Field at 7:05 PM. It’s safe to say that he will most likely be stretched out a little longer but will undoubtedly still be on a pitch count/innings limit.

Regardless, watching this young phenom pitch is definitely worth the price of admission.