Julio Urias pitches Los Angeles Dodgers to World Series while grieving grandmother

It’s been a tough couple of years for Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Julio Urias, but nothing compares to the peak and valley in 24 hours that he experienced Saturday

During their celebration on Saturday night after clinching their return to the World Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers took a moment to honor left-handed reliever Julio Urias, who had just gotten one of the biggest outs of the entire night when he coaxed a fly ball out of probable MVP Christian Yelich in the bottom of the 5th inning to preserve a Dodgers lead.

However, they weren’t toasting Urias for his pitching performance. Instead, they were acknowledging the grief that Urias pitched through that evening, as Julio had lost his grandmother the night before.

Urias was originally signed out of Mexico and pitched a half-season at low-A at just 16 years old. He quickly established himself as one of the top prospects in the game. After the 2015 season, he was rated as a consensus top 5 prospect in all of baseball.

More from Call to the Pen

• Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
• Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
• Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
• Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
• 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals

He tossed just 45 innings for AAA Oklahoma City before being promoted to Los Angeles Dodgers, where he had a brilliant major league introduction, making 18 appearances, starting 15, throwing 77 innings, with a 3.39 ERA, 1.46 WHIP, and a 31/84 BB/K. He did all of that at just 19 years old.

Urias opened the 2017 season as the Los Angeles Dodgers 5th starter, making his season debut at the end of April. He struggled in the majors and was optioned to AAA, where after a half-dozen starts, he tore his anterior capsule in the shoulder of his pitching arm. The recovery kept him out through nearly all of 2018, as he tossed just 11 2/3 minor league innings after making his first tosses from the mound July 30th before getting a call to the majors in mid-September. He made just 3 appearances in the big leagues, tossing 4 innings without allowing a run, giving up just one hit and posting a 0/7 BB/K.

Added to the roster for the NLCS, Urias has been excellent, appearing in 4 games, tossing 3 1/3 innings, allowing a run on 3 hits and no walks while striking out 3.

Urias looks like he could be an impact pitcher again with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2019, but right now, he’s got a much bigger thing to worry about. From all of us at Call To The Pen, Julio, our deepest condolences on the loss of your grandmother.