Julio Urias has another rough start as Dodgers lose to Orioles

BALTIMORE — And in the big inning, it was only the beginning of another bad day for Julio Urias.

The Dodgers left-hander has had intermittent issues in the first inning of starts throughout his career. He gave up four runs in the first Wednesday afternoon, putting the Dodgers behind early before losing to the Baltimore Orioles, 8-5.

Things got only slightly better for Urias after the first inning. He lasted five innings but gave up eight runs, the most earned runs he has allowed in a game during his major-league career.

“Just the inconsistencies again,” Urias said in Spanish. “My teammates gave me a lead in that first inning and I wasn’t able to hold it. I think that started all the frustration I had with my mechanics and the consistency of my throws.

“Good or bad, you always have to go out there and compete in that first inning and I think I just lacked being aggressive in that first inning.”

The Dodgers were optimistic that Urias had turned a corner in his previous two starts. He allowed just two runs on four hits over 12 innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Mets. He held the Mets scoreless on one hit five days ago and told Dodgers manager Dave Roberts in the dugout that “vacation is over.”

“I just felt that the sharpness, the teethiness to the pitches was going to be there and today it just wasn’t,” Roberts said.

“He’s known to get on a run. This year, probably more so than any year, (he’s still) trying to find that consistent four- or five-game stretch where he is that pitcher we know.”

There is something else very different about this year for Urias.

Baseball’s only 20-game winner in 2021 and the National League ERA leader in 2022, Urias is headed to a big payday in free agency this winter. But that gravy train has slipped off the tracks this year with Urias now sporting a 5.02 ERA. Wednesday was the fifth time in 14 starts he has given up at least five runs.

“Obviously everybody knows what’s happening, it’s not a secret. But my focus is on baseball and feeling good,” Urias said, denying his looming free agency has been a distraction. “I don’t worry about the results, I worry more about feeling good and that’s what I’m still searching for, being more and more consistent every time I get on the mound. I’m still optimistic and I’m confident that it’ll come.”

The Dodgers put up two runs of their own in the first inning, sending Urias to the mound with a lead. It didn’t last. He walked the second batter he faced, gave up hits to the next three and four of the next five before Jason Heyward came in on a sinking liner to make a nice catch and get Urias out of the inning.

“Obviously it was kind of a weird first inning,” Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes said. “There was scattered rain. There was humidity. Not to make excuses or anything like that, but it was a little bit of a weird first inning.”

It was a late first inning too. The start of the game was delayed 41 minutes so that the grounds crew could get the infield ready. They failed to cover it with the tarp following Tuesday’s game and it got soaked during rain showers that arrived early in the morning. After the late start, more rain arrived during that first inning.

But first-inning struggles have been an all-weather feature of Urias’ career.

He has given up 18 runs in the first inning of his 14 starts this season – and 25 in the other 62⅓ innings he has pitched this year.

During his career, Urias has allowed a .268 batting average and 68 runs in the first inning of his 115 starts, which translates to a 5.32 ERA. In any other inning, batters hit .213 off Urias, who has a 3.02 ERA after the first.

“It’s not just the first inning. Every inning I feel like taking it batter to batter is important,” Urias said. “But the damage has mostly come in the first inning. I obviously don’t think about it, but everyone knows what happens in the first inning.”

Urias retired the side in order in the second inning – the only easy part of his day. The Orioles tacked on two more runs in the third inning that featured an RBI double by Ramon Urias and a run-scoring wild pitch by Julio Urias. Jorge Mateo led off the fourth with a double and scored another run and Gunnar Henderson hit a long solo home run in the fifth.

The Dodgers got a solo home run by James Outman in the fourth and a two-run homer by Max Muncy in the fifth.

With his opposite-field drive, Outman became the first left-handed batter to clear the new higher, deeper left field wall – Wall-timore, as it has been dubbed since the Orioles pushed things back for the 2022 season.

Muncy’s home run came after an inning-ending double play was overturned on replay.

But the Dodgers got their first look at the Orioles’ bullpen combo of setup man Yennier Cano and closer Felix Bautista and went down quietly.