LOS ANGELES – Invoices keep coming in.
Before using Max Scherzer to facilitate Game 5 of their National League series win, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts admitted that using a bullpen starting pitcher between his starts always comes with a potential “cost.”
Serving for the fourth time in 12 days when he started game 2 of the NL Championship Series against the Atlanta Braves, Scherzer said his hand was “dead” and only lasted 4-1 / 3 innings on a losing streak.
Julio Urias was thrown out of the bullpen that game and was ineffective, allowing two runs in his inning.
Serving for the fourth time in 12 days in Game 4 on Wednesday night, Urias gave up three home runs from the first 11 hitters he faced (and only the second time in his career) and the Dodgers never recovered, losing to the Braves. 9-2.
Baseball wisdom says that momentum is as good as your starting pitcher for the next day. Urias wasn’t very good, but the Dodgers’ offense had no impact on the momentum of Cody Bellinger’s recovery home run with three runs in the eighth inning of Game 3 without getting hit until the fifth inning and just four times.
The Braves win (their first at Dodger Stadium since June 2018) gives them a 3-1 lead in the NLCS Best of Seven Rankings – for the second straight year against the Dodgers. Faced with a fifth game relegation for the fourth time in 11 games this postseason, the Dodgers need to win on Thursday – in the bullpen – just to continue the streak to Atlanta.
This will have to be done without the postseason heroes of the past, Max Muncie (injured elbow) or Justin Turner now. Turner left Game 4 in the seventh inning with a hamstring injury.
Urias has not dropped a 35 innings home run in his last six regular season starts and only one in his first 11 postseason innings. But Eddie Rosario and Adam Duvall struck in succession to start the second inning, while Freddie Freeman added a third solo homer to start the third inning.
Rosario continued to be the hottest striker in the postseason with no Kike name, hitting the ball into the right corner later in the third inning and increasing it to a triple when Muki Betts mishandled it.
After a deliberate walk, Jock Pederson sent a rocket into a shallow central field. Gavin Lux ran in but let him fall straight in front of him for the RBI single, instead of risking a dive. Urias appeared to be staring into midfield after the Braves scored their fourth goal.
Urias gave up another try in the fifth with 92 assists in five very difficult innings.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers didn’t have a single shot to call their own, and Lux was denied a possible home run by center fielder Duvall in the second inning.
The combination of Jesse Chavez and Drew Smiley removed the top 10 Dodgers in order and didn’t give up until Justin Turner’s single single in the fifth. Their second hit, Bellinger’s single, followed immediately, and Bellinger stole second base without a throw – the Dodgers’ record 14th stolen base this postseason.
A.J. Pollock stepped off the bench and played a single with two outs. But the Dodgers have only had one hit in the last four innings – a hit single by Albert Pujols in the seventh inning. After that hit, Justin Turner went into a double play and stopped running to first base, obviously injured.
The Braves sidelined the game with four runs in the ninth from Tony Gonsolin, including Rosario’s fourth hit and the game’s second home run.
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