Dodgers can’t overcome early deficit in loss to Marlins

LOS ANGELES — Julio Urias and the Dodgers were playing from behind all night, and the Marlins took advantage in a 10-6 win on Saturday night at Dodger Stadium.

Urias in his previous start allowed six runs for just the second time in his young career, and the first time since his second major league game. On Saturday night, he went a notch further, allowing seven runs to the Marlins while recording just seven outs.

“Julio tonight obviously just didn’t come in sharp,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He didn’t have command of any of his pitches, got behind, and really didn’t have a chance to get anything going.”

The Dodgers made two errors behind Urias, and one of his runs allowed was unearned, but for the most part his wounds were self-inflicted. Urias walked three batters on Saturday and despite getting to two strikes on six batters, failed to strike anyone out.

Urias in 2017 has 14 walks and 11 strikeouts in 23⅓ major league innings and 102 batters faced.

“The walk-to-strikeout ratio has been consistent, unfortunately,” Roberts said. “You’ve got to get ahead of hitters to then give yourself a chance to be efficient and go deeper in games. I’m not sure if it’s mechanical with him, but we’ve got to figure it out.”

Roberts has said multiple times that once Urias was called up he was here to stay, but with the way the Dodgers have juggled their starting rotation, and with Kenta Maeda returning to give them seven starters again -- Maeda will start Thursday against the Cardinals, following Clayton Kershaw and Rich Hill in the first two games of that series — and the way Urias is pitching, the 20-year-old seems like a prime candidate to make his next start or two in Triple-A to work on whatever he needs to work on.

“Anything should be on the table. Right now, we’re going to go back and reevaluate his last starts and figure out what’s best for him. Obviously we have an excess of starting pitching arms,” Roberts said. “We’ve got to have these conversations. We’ll have them tonight.”

The offensive barrage by the Marlins seemed like overkill given the way Dan Straily was pitching. He took a no-hitter into the fifth inning, when Kiké Hernandez homered to put the Dodgers on the scoreboard.

Fifteen of Hernandez’s 20 hits this season are for extra bases.

Did I mention it was “Pup at the park” night at Dodger Stadium? 558 dogs attended Saturday’s game, according to the team.

But then a funny thing happened on the way the blowout loss. Just like on May 11 in Colorado, the Dodgers clawed their way back from a 10-0 early deficit. They lost that game against the Rockies 10-7, but that they made Colorado use their closer and got the tying run to the plate was a small victory of sorts.

On Saturday, the Dodgers added two runs in the sixth, then three in the seventh, including back-to-back home runs by Corey Seager and Cody Bellinger.

Bellinger reached nine career home runs in his 24th game, faster than any other Dodgers player in history. The previous mark was 44 games, held jointly by Del Bissonette (1928), David Ross (2002-03) and Yasiel Puig (2013). Bellinger leads the Dodgers in home runs and RBI (24) despite playing in just over half of the club’s 44 games.

But 10-6 was the closest the Dodgers would get, thanks to David Phelps in the eighth and Kyle Barraclough in the ninth dashing their comeback hopes with scoreless frames.

Up next

The Dodgers go for the series win on Sunday afternoon with Brandon McCarthy starting the 1:10 p.m. PT finale. Vance Worley, just called up from Triple-A New Orleans, will start for Miami.

The Dodgers used five relievers to record the final 20 outs on Saturday, including Ross Stripling, so the club is essentially without a long man on Sunday. That could be rectified by calling someone up from Triple-A Oklahoma City.

“There is a thought with McCarthy, if something unforeseen does happen, you’ve got to have coverage,” Roberts said. “That will play into our discussions tonight.”

Saturday particulars

Home runs: Kiké Hernandez (3), Corey Seager (7), Cody Bellinger (9); J.T. Riddle (2)

WP - Dan Straily (2-2): 5⅔ IP, 4 hits, 3 runs, 3 walks, 8 strikeouts

LP - Julio Urias (0-2): 2⅓ IP, 7 hits, 7 runs (6 earned), 3 walks, 0 strikeouts