(Photo Credit: milb.com)
Julio Urias continued his domination of the Pacific Coast League on Saturday night, throwing six scoreless innings while surrendering only three hits and two walks, as Oklahoma City defeated Las Vegas, 1-0.
The 19-year-old southpaw struck out six opposing batters and extended his scoreless innings streak to 22 consecutive innings. He threw a total of 82 pitches, 51 of which were strikes. Urias also induced two double plays and picked two runners off first base — his third and fourth pickoffs over his last three starts.
In six games started this season, the Dodgers‘ top pitching prospect has thrown 36 total innings, recording a 1.25 ERA, a 0.81 WHIP and a .176 opposition batting average. He has now struck out 39 batters against only 8 walks on the year.
Joe Thatcher, Matt West and Chin-hui Tsao held Las Vegas scoreless in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, respectively. West picked up the win and Tsao earned the save after catcher Jack Murphy homered to the upper deck in right field in the bottom of the eighth to register the only run of the game.
The audience continues to increase at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark when Urias starts, as a capacity crowd of 9975 was on hand to see the Dodgers’ lefty phenom throw on Saturday. The five-game series continues on Sunday at 2:05 p.m. local time, when OKC righty Zach Lee opposes Seth Lugo of Las Vegas.
Meanwhile, on Saturday in Tulsa, first base prospect Cody Bellinger went 3-for-5, including a walk-off grand slam, leading the Drillers to a 6-2 victory over Arkansas at ONEOK Field. The shot over the billboards in the right field bullpen was his first career Double-A home run after hitting 30 for Single-A Rancho Cucamonga last season.
Batting sixth in the lineup behind Jacob Scavuzzo and Alex Verdugo, Bellinger appears to be regaining his hitting stroke. Having struggled as of late, Bellinger missed a little over four weeks at the beginning of the season with a hip injury.
Right fielder Andrew Toles and left fielder Devan Ahart each chipped in with an RBI for Tulsa, helping guide the club to their first four-game home sweep since June of 2012 against Northwest Arkansas.
Drillers’ reliever Grant Dayton picked up his third win of the season after recording two strikeouts in a clean tenth inning.
After a day off on Sunday, Tulsa will head to Missouri to begin an eight-game road trip, starting with a four-game series against the Springfield Cardinals on Monday. Drillers’ righty and friend of the blog Chase De Jong will take the hill in the first game, opposed by Mike Mayers of Springfield. First pitch is slated for 6:30 p.m. local time.
In other Dodgers news, lefty starter Hyun-jin Ryu will pitch in his first rehab game for Rancho Cucamonga on Sunday. He had been in Arizona since spring training rehabbing from shoulder surgery performed last year, but struggled last month with a groin injury that pushed him back several weeks. The club has Ryu scheduled to pitch two full innings against Inland Empire in a contest that begins at 2:05 p.m. local time.