Coming off a poor outing against the Miami Marlins last week, a return to Dodger Stadium figured to be a positive for Walker Buehler. He went into Wednesday’s game undefeated in 11 home starts this season.
Buehler remained that way after facing the Toronto Blue Jays, though he didn’t earn a win as Kenley Jansen blew a save before the Los Angeles Dodgers earned a walk-off win behind Max Muncy’s home run in the 10th inning.
Buehler scattered five hits over seven scoreless innings, doing his part to uphold Will Smith’s solo home run that gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. Buehler’s eight strikeouts tied for his second-highest in four August starts.
“I thought Walker was really, really good. He was in sync all night long, changing speeds, the fastball had the carry, the command,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
Buehler, however, had a different interpretation of his outing. “I don’t think my stuff was quite as good as it has been. I caught some breaks,” he said.
“Couple jam hits here and there, and when they hit some balls hard, defense played well and caught a few balls at the wall. Felt good about it, not great. Half this game is trying to win without your best stuff. I think that’s kind of what we had tonight, but I made some pitches when I needed to.”
Buehler specifically lamented a lack of command with his slider and cutter. While he may have lacked a complete feel for either pitch, Buehler wasn’t as wild when compared to his three walks in four innings against the Marlins.
Most of that was chalked up to Buehler’s ongoing brush with inconsistency in road starts. The subpar performance didn’t lend to any knee-jerk reaction or change in regimen for Buehler.
“Nothing different than what I always do,” he said of the time between starts. “I think for me, it’s staying in good lanes and being able to play pitches off each other. Just my normal routine, and we’ll continue to do that.”
