There weren’t many, but there were a few silver linings in the Dodgers 4-0 shutout loss to the National League Central second place Milwaukee Brewers at Dodger Stadium on Monday night.

Chief among them was yet another near perfect outing by 26-year-old Dodgers left-hander Julio Urías, who entered the contest with an outstanding 15-8 record and equally outstanding 2.40 ERA.

But for one 95.1 four-seam fastball right over the heart of the plate, the Culiacan, Mexico native, who was signed by the Dodgers as an amateur free agent in 2012, would have finished his 24th start of the season with one less loss in his 2022 Cy Young Award-worthy season.

Even at that, Urías left Monday night’s game having lowered his ERA to 2.36 after his 6.0 innings of work after his only mistake of the night resulting in a fourth-inning solo home run by Brewers third baseman Luis Urías (no relation). Urías allowed only one additional hit, a sixth-inning single by always-dangerous Brewers left fielder Christian Yelich, while walking one and striking out seven.

“No, I would have done the same thing. I mean, obviously the location would have been a little different, but the pitch would have been the same,” Urías answered through an interpreter, when asked it he would have done anything different on his home run pitch to his namesake. “He’s a very talented hitter, likes to attack fastballs, but the location was just where I didn’t want the ball.”

Additional silver linings on Monday night were multi-hit games by Dodgers designated hitter Justin Turner and second baseman Gavin Lux, who both had a pair of singles. Unfortunately, both of Turner’s came with no one on base, and Lux’s first resulted in Turner being thrown out at the plate on a perfect throw from Yelich.

“No, it was a baseball play, it was a good send with two outs,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts answered postgame, when asked if sending Turner home may have been an overaggressive send by Dodgers third base coach Dino Ebel. “If there’s anything you can poke holes with Yelich, it’s his arm strength, but he made a heck of a throw.”

And then there was 26-year-old Dodgers left-hander Alex Vesia and extremely popular 23-year-old Dodgers right-hander Brusdar Graterol, who the Dodgers recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City just prior to gametime. All Vesia and Graterol did was retire the three Brewers batters they each faced in the seventh and eighth innings respectively … on 15 and 14 pitches respectively.

And then there was (yet another) spectacular catch by Dodgers left fielder Chris Taylor, who made a diving catch over the wall in foul territory down the left field line for the final out of the top of the fifth inning.

And then there was the dark cloud.

Dodgers right-hander Phil Bickford was absolutely atrocious in his single inning of work in the top of the ninth. The 27-year-old Ventura, CA native allowed three runs on three hits, including back-to-back doubles to lead off the inning accounting for one Brewers run, followed by two sacrifice flies accounting for another; followed by a single, followed by a walk, before finally recording the final out of the frame – all of which occurred on 31 total pitches, of which only 16 were strikes. Bickford now owns a team-worst 5.05 ERA among all Dodgers pitchers.

Watch out for lightening.

Play Ball!

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