As he has done in nearly each of his previous five starts this season, 26-year-old Dodgers left-hander Julio Urías was sharp – again – in his MLB-leading sixth start of the season on Thursday afternoon against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park … until he wasn’t – again.

After taking a 2-0 lead over the the NL Central Division-leading Pirates in the top of the first inning, the Culiacan, Mexico native allow three runs in the bottom half of the inning; one the result of a throwing error by Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes on what should have been an easy out on a sacrifice bunt attempt by Pirates second baseman Tucupita Marcano, which Barnes nearly threw to Philadelphia to put runners in scoring position (and they did), giving the Pirates a 3-2 lead after one. Urías then allowed back-to-back home runs – again – to Pirates first baseman Conner Joe and shortstop Rodolfo Castro in the bottom of the sixth inning to make it 6-2 Pirates, the eventual final score.

“I just didn’t execute,” Urías told reporters postgame through an interpreter. “Obviously, there were a couple good innings in there, but the bad innings, there was just no execution.”

“I think the two-strike bunt changed the dynamic of that (bottom of the first) inning,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of his young left-hander postgame. “They capitalized, a couple other base hits, a couple stolen bases put them in situational hitting situation. They capitalized, scored some runs. I thought after that, he did a nice job of kind of recalibrating and settling back in and getting into a good rhythm.

“I thought the pitch count was where it needed to be, we’re in the game,” Roberts added. “He just made that mistake to Joe on a curveball that just didn’t get to the dirt. That’s one we’d like to have back, but I thought Julio competed, you know. He’s now an out away from getting through the sixth and unfortunately, we just couldn’t get there.”

Giving credit where due, Pirates right-hander Mitch Keller was absolutely brilliant in his 6.0 innings of work on Thursday, allowing just those two first inning Dodgers runs on five hits, while walking one and striking out 10, including a suddenly (and disturbingly) ice cold James Outman, who struck three times against him, and a fourth against Pirates right-hander David Bednar. The previously red-hot Dodgers rookie is seven for his last 25, with nine strikeouts. That said, Outman is still slashing and impressive .287 / .367 / .644 / 1.011 on the season, with seven home runs and 19 RBI – second most on the team in both categories to only Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy‘s 11 and 21 respectively, so there’s that.

With the loss, Urías is now 3-3 on the season, with a 4.41 ERA. He does, however, currently have a team-best 35 strikeouts, three more than Dodgers ace and future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw‘s 32. That will soon change, as the 4-1 Kershaw has yet to make his sixth start of the season.

The Dodgers (finally) return home to begin a six-game homestand on Friday evening – three with the 10-16 NL Central last place St Louis Cardinals and three with the 13-13 NL East fourth place Philadelphia Phillies.

Play Ball!

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