Julio Urias returns looking rusty and isn’t helped by luck or his defense – Dodgers Digest

Well this game was a mess. Things started out about as laughably bad as could be, then the Dodgers provided some hope before doing nothing much the rest of the game in a 6-4 loss to the Royals.

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Julio Urias returned from the IL and was immediately greeted with a long inning that included five runs, a bunch of defensive miscues, and bad luck.

He eventually maanged to get through three innings, but obviously things didn’t go ideally in his start back against a woeful Royals team.

3 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 2 BB, 2 K, 66 Pitches

Look, it’s not that Urias looks sharp, but lmao. pic.twitter.com/lejldVDAkW

— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) July 2, 2023

On the other side, the Dodgers did try to claw back into the game. In the 2nd they got a three-spot thanks to a Jonny Deluca walk, James Outman single, a Yonny Hernandez double that scored Deluca, a Mookie Betts sacrifice fly to plate Outman, and a Freddie Freeman single to score Yonny to cut things to 5-3.

Meanwhile, Phil Bickford and Ryan Brasier got a pair of innings each, with the latter giving up just an unearned run on his own error, which gave the Royals six runs and made it 6-3. Brusdar Graterol got the 8th, and that was it for the Royals.

Unfortunately the Dodgers went quiet. They stranded half-chances in the 3rd (first and third with two outs) and 5th (second with two outs), and also couldn’t get the job done after a lead-off double in the 7th.

Their best chance came in the 8th when an Outman infield single made it 6-4 and they loaded the bases for Freddie Freeman, but he couldn’t come through and that was about all she wrote.

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*Either still playing or will play later.

The rubber match will be tomorrow at 8:10 AM HT/11:10 AM PT/2:10 PM ET with Tony Gonsolin facing Brady Singer.