Julio Urias dominates as Dodgers beat Marlins in doubleheader sweep

Julio Urías continued to establish himself as the kind of horse the Dodgers need to front their playoff rotation on Saturday night, allowing one run and five hits, striking out five and walking none in seven innings of a 3-1 victory that completed a split doubleheader sweep of the Miami Marlins before a crowd of 52,688 in Chavez Ravine.

Mookie Betts, who hit a tie-breaking two-run single in the eighth inning of the first game, powered the offense in the nightcap with the 28th multi-homer game of his career, driving a 402-foot solo shot to left field in the third inning and a 419-foot solo shot to left-center in the fifth off Marlins left-hander Braxton Garrett.

His 33rd and 34th homers of the season moved Betts to within one of the career-high 35 homers the leadoff man hit for the Dodgers in 2022.

Betts, who pushed his run total to 101, marking the sixth time in seven full seasons he has scored 100 runs or more, is batting .379 (61 for 161) with 14 homers, 17 doubles, 39 RBIs, 43 runs, 29 walks and 24 strikeouts in 41 games since June 28.

Urías, who struggled in the first half with injury (hamstring) and inconsistency, is on a similar run of dominance on the mound, improving to 4-0 with a 2.03 ERA in his last five starts, in which the left-hander has allowed seven earned runs and 24 hits in 31 innings, striking out 32 and walking four to improve to 11-6 with a 4.15 ERA on the season.

Urías gave up a solo homer in the first inning to Josh Bell, whose two-out shot traveled 431 feet into the left-center field pavilion for a 1-0 Marlins lead, and nothing else, thanks to his ability to escape two jams.

Miami put two on with no outs in the third when Nick Fortes was hit by a pitch and Jon Berti singled to right, but Urías struck out power-hitting leadoff man Jorge Soler with a 90-mph cut-fastball, got .360-hitting Luis Arraez to fly out to left field and Bell to pop out to first base to end the inning.

Mookie Betts runs the bases after hitting a home run in the fifth inning against the Marlins on Saturday night.

(Ryan Sun / Associated Press)

The Dodgers tied the score 1-1 in the bottom of the second on a rally featuring their two position-playing, trade-deadline acquisitions, as Amed Rosario led off with a double to left and scored on Kiké Hernández’s two-out single to right.

Urías retired the side in order in the fifth and sixth innings but got into more trouble in the seventh when Jake Burger led off with a single and Avisail Garcia hit a two-out double off the left-field wall to put runners on second and third.

But with LeBron James watching from a club-level suite on the Lakers star’s bobblehead night in Dodger Stadium, Urías got Fortes to fly out to left field with his 100th and final pitch of the night to preserve a 3-1 lead.

Ryan Brasier gave up one hit and struck out one in a scoreless eighth inning, and Brusdar Graterol escaped a second-and-third, two-out jam in the top of the ninth when Hernández charged pinch-hitter Jesus Sanchez’s slow roller to third and made a long, off-balance throw to first for an out that was upheld after a replay review. With that, the Dodgers wrapped up a 9-1 homestand with their 17th win in 19 games.