Julio Urias can't get out of 3rd inning in MLB debut

Welcome to the big leagues, kid.

Julio Urias made his much-ballyhooed major league debut on Friday night against the Mets, and immediately faced adversity the likes of which he had not witnessed all season in Triple-A. Urias struggled with command in his debut, couldn't finish the third inning, and left the game trailing the Mets 3-1.

All part of the learning process.

Urias struck out his first batter faced, Curtis Granderson, though it took seven pitches. Then Urias allowed his first hit, a double into the left field corner by Asdrubal Cabrera. After a strikeout of David Wright, it looked like Urias might escape the jam.

That did not happen.

During Wright's at-bat, Urias uncorked a wild pitch over everybody's head and to the backstop, allowing Cabrera to advance to third. Then he walked Yoenis Cespedes, command starting to fade.

Neil Walker made Urias pay with a hard-hit double to left to score Cabrera, with Cespedes holding at third. But because life as we know it is a soul-crushing experience designed to prepare us for our certain doom, Juan Lagares followed with a broken-bat bleeder just out of the reach of Corey Seager at shortstop for a two-run single, pushing the deficit to 3-0.

Urias would allow another single in the inning and needed 36 pitches to finally get out of it, using up 40 percent of his allotted ration.

Urias got through the second unscathed, but thanks to another walk, to Granderson, he needed 16 pitches that inning.

In the third innings, two relatively quick outs gave Urias hope to last longer in the game, but then he began to tire. A single by Lagares was followed by back-to-back walks to Kevin Plawecki and Eric Campbell.

Jacob deGrom the pitcher was the next batter, but Urias didn't get a chance to escape his own jam, instead pulled at 81 pitches, one fewer than his 2016 season high. Only 42 of those pitches were strikes.

Urias is the first Dodgers pitcher with a start under three innings but at least 80 pitches since June 10, 2009, when a fellow named Clayton Kershaw also threw 81 pitches and faced 17 batters in this clunker against the Padres:

2⅔ IP, 5 hits, 3 runs, 4 walks, 2 strikeouts

That was Kershaw's 33rd MLB start.

Urias on Friday, in his first MLB start: 2⅔ IP, 5 hits, 3 runs, 4 walks, 3 strikeouts

Coincidence? Yes, of course.