The Los Angeles Dodgers learned Wednesday night that the World Series will not be a cakewalk as the Tampa Bay Rays bounced back after a blowout loss, earning a 6-4 victory to even the matchup at one game apiece.
The Dodgers went with a bullpen game in Game 2, only for their two young pitchers, Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May, to both struggle in limited action.
While losing is never ideal, the silver lining is that the Dodgers stayed away from all of their high-leverage relievers since they were trailing. Thus, Blake Treinen, Kenley Jansen and Brusdar Graterol have all yet to pitch in the World Series.
Additionally, Julio Urias was available out of the bullpen and also didn’t pitch. Because of that, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts announced that Urias will now be sandwiched between Walker Buehler (Game 3) and Clayton Kershaw (Game 5), getting the Game 4 start.
“We feel great. We’ve got Walker going, we’ve got Julio going, and we’ve got Clayton,” Roberts said of the Dodgers’ confidence moving moving forward.
Urias has arguably been the club’s best pitcher this postseason, allowing just one earned run in 16 innings across four outings. Only one of those was a start when he pitched five innings of one-run ball in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series against the Atlanta Braves.
The Dodgers, of course, scored 15 runs in the first three innings of that game which took a ton of pressure off Urias.
The left-hander was able to return and pitch out of the bullpen in Game 7 of that series, tossing three perfect innings to close it out.
Dodgers’ Game 6 starter still unknown
With Urias now officially the Game 4 starter for the Dodgers, the only game that remains unknown is in a potential Game 6, which could be another bullpen game with some combination of Gonsolin and May.
Neither of the right-handers have looked good this postseason, and that could open the door for Alex Wood.
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