Julio Urias hits, pitches Dodgers past Giants to tie series
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SAN FRANCISCO — With some mighty swings, solid pitching and defensive gems that have defined the Dodgers’ success the past decade, the defending World Series champions are headed home in prime playoff position having grabbed momentum away from the division-winning Giants.
Fittingly, this NL Division Series between rivals has become a back-and-forth fight.
Julio Urías shut down San Francisco and contributed an RBI single for his cause, Cody Bellinger and AJ Pollock delivered two-run doubles to break it open in the sixth, and Los Angeles pounded the Giants 9-2 on Saturday night to even the series between baseball’s two winningest teams at one game apiece.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts declared earlier in the day, “We’re going to play this game essentially like a do or die,” and the reigning champs did just that by continuing to add on all game, including Will Smith’s leadoff homer in the eighth.
Now, NL West runner-up Los Angeles — second place despite 106 wins to the Giants’ 107 — is going to Chavez Ravine with a chance to ride this win and hand ace Max Scherzer the ball next.
“It’s a good feeling,” Roberts said. “It’s interesting how the narrative changes from game to game. Right now, it’s a three-game series, we have home-field advantage and we have Max on the mound. I like where we’re at.”
The best-of-five set shifts to Dodger Stadium for Game 3 on Monday night all square, hardly a surprise considering how close these clubs played for months. The Giants edged the Dodgers for the division on the final day and took the season series 10-9 but were outscored overall 80-78.
“It’s great to win one on the road,” Dodgers star Mookie Betts said. “Julio pitched a great game. Any type of atmosphere like this, he’s going to come ready to pitch.”
Urías hit an RBI single in the second to give Los Angeles the lead, and Betts followed with a run-scoring single.
And those “Let’s go, Giants!” chants were suddenly competing against the fired-up Los Angeles faithful’s “Let’s go, Dodgers!” in a boisterous, largely orange sellout crowd of 42,275.
“It was exciting to get the team going, I think they fed off that,” Urías said through an interpreter.
San Francisco answered right back in the bottom half when Urías walked Wilmer Flores leading off and gave up Brandon Crawford’s single. Flores advanced on Evan Longoria’s deep flyball to center and scored on a sacrifice fly by Donovan Solano.
Urías hardly looked rattled.
Leading up to his start, the 25-year-old lefty stressed how facing these Giants would take an immense focus — and the 20-game winner sure looked the part from first pitch in outdueling Giants All-Star right-hander Kevin Gausman.
Urías went unbeaten over his final 17 regular-season starts since June 21, going 11-0 during that stretch that included a Sept. 4 victory here at raucous Oracle Park. He struck out five and walked one over five innings Saturday, giving up one run on three hits.
“I’ve never seen him not having his stuff. He always has it,” Giants infielder Wilmer Flores said.
Gausman, furiously chomping his bubble gum, had a tough act to follow after a gem by Logan Webb in his postseason debut a night earlier, when the right-hander and a pair of relievers held the slugging Dodgers to five hits in a 4-0 victory.
Trea Turner doubled leading off the sixth, and after Justin Turner struck out, Smith walked to chase Gausman after 5⅓ innings in which he struck out seven and walked three.
Trea Turner also contributed two stellar defensive plays at second base, while Betts thwarted a potential Giants rally in the sixth with a perfect throw from right field to catch Flores at third. Flores took responsibility for the move.
“Sometimes you just do things you can’t really explain,” Betts said of his play. “And that was just one of them.”
Buster Posey’s sixth-inning single gave him 54 career playoff hits, most in Giants postseason history. He had three hits in the game.
“Obviously looking forward to turning the page on tonight’s game and getting ready for Los Angeles,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said. “It wasn’t our best effort tonight. Dodgers just swung the bats better than us, made more pitches than us, made more plays than us.
“So as we’ve done all season long, we’ll turn the page and get ready for an off day, an off day of preparation and get ready for Game 3.”