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LOS ANGELES — With how dominant Julio Urías has been over the last two seasons, the Dodgers know they just need to find a way to plate a couple of runs and let the Mexican left-hander get to work.
That’s precisely what happened in the Dodgers’ 5-2 win over the Rockies on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium as Los Angeles used three homers to back Urías, who tossed six scoreless innings in yet another impressive outing.
“Tonight was good, up and down the lineup,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “When we do that, we’re pretty tough to beat and tough to pitch to. Guys were taking walks. … Up and down the lineup, just really good stuff.”
Will Smith got the scoring started once again, launching a two-run homer off Rockies right-hander Germán Márquez in the first inning. Smith homered for the third consecutive game and is putting together the best start to a season in his career.
“I’m feeling pretty good,” Smith said. “It always feels good when you’re swinging at the right pitches and you’re doing something with them, you’re not missing them or fighting them off. But yeah, just trying to keep it going and show up Thursday ready to go.”
The Dodgers catcher has, somehow, been one of the most underrated players in the Majors. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that Smith is poised to have an even bigger season than he did in ’22.
“I think that he’s one of the top three catchers in all of baseball,” Roberts said. “He’s a superstar, and it probably makes him uncomfortable. But his ability to post and play both sides of the baseball, hit in the middle of the order, you don’t find guys like that.”
Jason Heyward followed Smith’s lead, hitting a solo homer off Márquez in the third. Heyward, who went through extensive swing changes and mechanical tweaks over the offseason, had just one homer in 151 plate appearances with the Cubs last season. Heyward has gone deep in back-to-back games with the Dodgers, surpassing last year’s total in just eight plate appearances.
“To his credit, there was full buy-in,” Roberts said of Heyward and the swing changes. “These are as good of at-bats as I’ve seen out of him in a couple years, to be quite honest.”
Per Baseball Savant, Heyward’s blast was also his hardest-hit homer since 2015 with an exit velocity of 112.7 mph. Max Muncy followed with a solo homer in the fourth inning and Smith put the finishing touches on the offense with an RBI double in the eighth.
That helped Urías settle in and give the Dodgers everything they needed on the mound. Urías had all three of his main pitches working and also threw in the cutter he’s leaned on more this season. Urías threw the pitch a few seasons ago, but stopped once he began throwing the slurve more often. But he decided to break out his new weapon this season, giving him a fourth pitch. He threw the cutter 11 times on Tuesday.
“I spent this offseason working on it,” Urías said in Spanish. “I didn’t throw it in the World Baseball Classic. I wanted to save it for the regular season and I feel good with it. I feel confident throwing it in any count and now we just need to keep improving it.”
Urías’ biggest moment of the game came in the third. After the Rockies loaded the bases with no outs, he struck out Kris Bryant for the first out and got C.J. Cron to ground into an inning-ending double play. Outside of that, the Colorado offense had no answers for him.
“He’s a stud,” Smith said. “It’s fun to catch him every five days.”
With the two-game sweep over the Rockies, the Dodgers wrapped up their first homestand of the season with a 4-2 record. In two of those six games, the Dodgers’ offense was held quiet. In two others, the offense erupted for double-digit runs.
In reality, this Dodgers team will need to win games like Tuesday’s in order to have a successful season. They’ll need timely big hits and stellar pitching performances. In the end, it was a good first test for the Dodgers.