Julio Urias Officially Named Dodgers Opening Day Starter
The worst kept secret is officially out of the box at Dodger camp. On Friday, the team announced that Julio Urias will be starting on opening day (technically opening night) in LA next Thursday.
The Dodgers shared the news on Twitter.
This will be the first opening day start of Urias’s career. The left-hander is entering his eighth season with the Dodgers and owns a 49-17 career record. 37 of those wins have come in the last two seasons. Urias has been among the best starting pitchers in baseball over the last two years, posting a combined 2.57 ERA over 360.2 innings. He finished third in Cy Young award voting in the National League last season, finishing behind Miami’s Sandy Alcantara and Atlanta’s Max Fried.
Over the last decade-plus, Clayton Kershaw has more often than not been anointed the starter for opening day. The future Hall of Famer has made a franchise record 9 opening day starts in his 15 year career with LA but he gave his blessing for Julio to get this start.
Urias will face a familiar foe in the Arizona Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium. He owns a career 7-1 record with a 1.38 ERA against the D-backs over 11 appearances (8 starts). He also owns a 2.95 lifetime ERA pitching at Dodger Stadium.
First pitch is set for 7:10 PM PT on Spectrum SportsNet LA and on AM570 LA Sports Radio.
