LOS ANGELES _ The thunder started to roll outside Dodger Stadium in Monday's sixth inning as night fell upon Los Angeles and fireworks crackled all around the city. Inside the ballpark, in a July 4 game marked by offensive barrages, the loudest roar would come an inning later.
The stadium rippled with excitement as Corey Seager led off the seventh inning with a triple. The cheers drowned out the citywide pyrotechnics when Justin Turner brought him home with a sacrifice fly, driving in the go-ahead run in a 7-5 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.
In winning their fifth game in a row, the Dodgers (48-37) surmounted a shaky, brief effort from rookie starter Julio Urias. The bullpen suppressed the explosive lineup of the Orioles for the game's final 17 outs.
After sweeping the Colorado Rockies over the weekend, the Dodgers relied upon their offense once more. Chase Utley delivered a pair of two-out hits to drive in runs. Yasiel Puig and Yasmani Grandal supplied home runs. Seager remained a force, charging toward an All-Star appearance in his first full season.
Seager makes the life of a rookie look easy. Urias serves as a reminder of its difficulties. The team may shut down Urias, who has a 4.95 earned-run average in eight starts, with Brandon McCarthy back from the disabled list and Hyun-Jin Ryu slated to rejoin the team on Thursday. Urias allowed five runs in 3 1/3 innings on Monday.
Urias ripped through the first inning in 10 pitches. The next frame was far more taxing. Baltimore squeezed 41 pitches out of him in the second and scored two runs.
The Orioles entered the game leading baseball in slugging percentage and home runs. No Dodger has supplied more homers this season than Seager, who has hit 17. His total would rank fourth on Baltimore's roster.
So Urias faced a lineup littered with minefields. In the second, he allowed a leadoff single to outfielder Mark Trumbo (24 home runs) and issued a walk to first baseman Chris Davis (21 home runs). Both men advanced into scoring position on a flyball to right.
With one out, Urias could not put away shortstop J.J. Hardy. In a 10-pitch at-bat, Hardy fouled off five offerings before stinging a two-run double into the right-center gap. Puig narrowly missed the catch, and thudded into the wall as the runs rolled home.
Urias allowed the Orioles lineup to turn over when he walked Yovani Gallardo, the opposing pitcher. Up came outfielder Adam Jones. Urias elevated a changeup. Jones smashed an RBI single up the middle. As Urias toiled, Pedro Baez warmed up in the Dodgers bullpen.
Manager Dave Roberts stuck with Urias through the inning. He would send him back out for the third. By then, the Dodgers had trimmed two runs off the deficit. To do so, the team hit back-to-back homers for the first time in 2016.
Puig struck first. He hammered a hanging curveball into the center-field bleachers, launching his second home run since he returned from the disabled list on June 21.
Then Grandal clobbered a thigh-high slider from Gallardo. He admired the baseball's flight as it cleared the bullpen beyond right field.
Urias struck out Trumbo and Davis in a tidy third inning. But he only recorded one more out. The first three batters in the fourth collected hits. Following a single by catcher Matt Wieters and a double by Hardy, outfielder Joey Rickard scored both men with a single.
Roberts allowed Urias to face one more batter. After Gallardo laid down a bunt, Roberts retrieved the baseball. He would need his bullpen to survive the night.
The Dodgers benefited from the shaky pitching staff of their guests. Puig led off the bottom of the fourth with a single. Batting in place of the pitcher, Scott Van Slyke worked a two-out walk. Utley drove in a run with a single, and put runners at the corners for Seager.
Gallardo picked up two strikes on Seager before trying to spot a 92-mph fastball on the outer half. Seager shot an opposite-field single through the left side of the infield to drive in a run. He extended his hitting streak to 17 games, the longest in the majors this season.
The Dodgers evened the score in the sixth. Utley came to the plate with two out and the tying run at second. He singled up the middle off reliever Odrisamer Despaigne and scored outfielder Will Venable.
