Urias plays stopper with dominant outing

CINCINNATI — Early on, it seemed like Sunday might produce another short outing for Dodgers rookie Julio Urias.

Urias took Reds leadoff man Billy Hamilton to a full count before striking him out and then gave up a single to Jose Peraza. But with his patented quick move, Urias wiped Peraza off the bases with his fifth pickoff of the season before working around another single to escape the inning unscathed. After that, Urias went on to retire the next nine batters he faced, ultimately throwing six shutout innings in a 4-0 win at Great American Ball Park in arguably the best start of the 20-year-old’s short career.

“I think the thing today with Juli is he was getting his breaking ball over for a strike, keeping the ball down in the strike zone,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “He and [catcher Yasmani Grandal] had a really nice rhythym today and Yasi did a nice job navigating him through that game.”

Urias’ improvement after that first inning came courtesy of an adjustment he made between frames. He struggled with his armside command in the first — especially with the changeup — but spoke …

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