Rotation struggling, LA uses Urias in mop-up role

DENVER — Julio Urias pitching mop-up duty. That’s what it’s come to for the Dodgers.

The teenage wunderkind and top prospect, untouchable in trade talk and handled with innings-limit kid gloves, was called upon to bail out the bedraggled pitching staff by eating three meaningless innings in a 12-2 blowout loss to the Rockies on Wednesday night at Coors Field.

Called up before the game, Urias pitched without glasses or contact lenses, because his bag didn’t arrive in time. He and catcher A.J. Ellis had to improvise because the young lefty couldn’t see the catcher’s signs.

This is what happens when starters Clayton Kershaw, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Alex Wood, Brett Anderson and newbie Rich Hill are on the disabled list, when starters Bud Norris and Brandon McCarthy can’t get past the third inning in their most recent starts, and Brock Stewart, making his second MLB start, couldn’t record an out in the fifth, allowing four homers and nine runs in the thin air of Denver.

It’s what happens on a day when relievers Adam Liberatore and Louis Coleman go on the disabled list to join Chris Hatcher, …

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