Dodgers News: Dave Roberts Feels Julio Urias Has Mentally Turned a Corner

He's shown a lot of maturity this season!

Julio Urias has had to deal with a lot this year. He's spent a lot of time on the injured list with a hamstring strain. He struggled at times giving up the long ball, giving up a career-high 1.5 per 9 in 18 starts. But, through and through he's persevered and remained an integral part of the Dodgers' rotation that needs him to be great in order to succeed.

The back half of the season is really a time to show that you still have it, no matter what happened in the first half, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts thinks Julio Urias may have found something that will help him succeed into the late season.

“I thought he was focused all day,” Roberts said. “The stuff was really sharp. You could just see he was determined."

“I think that he understands that, up to this point, it hasn’t been the year that he had hoped for,” Roberts said. “But you can really finish strong and make it a great year. There’s still plenty of baseball left.”

via

mlb.com

The lefty started out the game on fire, sitting down 6 of the first 7 batters he faced, and striking out three of them, so it seems like he is poised to repeat what he's done in the past for the Dodgers. 

Urias even said that he feels a difference in where his stuff is now, compared to where it was at the beginning of the year, and that the game itself is just a series of ups and downs.

“This game has a lot of highs and lows,” Urías said in Spanish. “The last two seasons I’ve been able to be really consistent, but this year we’ve had to battle through some things that have made me a little inconsistent. But now I feel good physically and mentally, and I think we’re getting back on track.”

If Urias can continue to excel and produce more of what we saw on Sunday, the Dodgers are going to be in a great spot come October.

Do you think Julio can find a way to be an ace of this staff?