Walker Buehler was back on the mound for the Los Angeles Dodgers with increased confidence after his last two outings where he believed things were trending in the right direction.
However, that added confidence may have been short-lived as the Chicago Cubs got to him early. Ian Happ opened the game with a single and Cody Bellinger blasted a two-run homer to put the Cubs up.
Isaac Paredes followed with a dobule and came home to score on a single from Michael Busch, who the Dodgers traded in the offseason, to give them a 3-0 lead in the first inning.
In addition, Busch homered in the fourth against Buehler, and after Bellinger and Paredes reached against him in the sixth, and that ended Buehler’s day as Anthony Banda entered to replace him before allowing the inherited runners to score.
Buehler finished his day going 5+ innings, allowing five runs on nine hits with one walk, four strikeouts and two home runs allowed.
After his outing, Buehler said he was frustrated by that first inning that put the Dodgers in position to lose, he said via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“I screwed us from the jump,” said Buehler, who has given up 26 runs in the first or second innings in his 13 starts this season. “Obviously three runs in the first kind of sucked the energy out of the building. It’s hard. The first inning has been a weird thing for me this year. That’s a lot to ask of the rest of our guys to dig me out of a hole every game.”
Buehler, who is returning from a second career Tommy John surgery, has not been able to find any consistent rhythm this season. He now owns a 5.95 ERA in 59 innings with a 1.64 WHIP, and his peripheral numbers are worse than that.
With the playoffs approaching and the Dodgers in need of pitching options for October, Buehler said he hasn’t focused on that at all. He is instead just trying to get through the season and figure out a way to perform for the team:
“No. At some point, given the way this season’s going, I’m kind of just trying to survive it at some point,” he said. “The past two or three have given me a little bit of confidence and feeling a little more like myself. But at some point, I’m just kind of waiting on that six on one (innings and runs), feel good, punch more than the innings I throw and things like that.
“At the end of the day I’ve got to perform and I’ve kind of said that for a long time. I’ve got to perform for myself, but more for our team. We’re trying to get to the end of a race here and whether I pitch in the playoffs or not, or whatever, we need to make the playoffs and be in a good spot and let the guys that have carried us all year carry us wherever we’re gonna go. At this point, I’m trying to go and us win the game when I start.”
The list of players to successfully come back from a second elbow reconstruction surgery is very slim, and many of them have their careers vastly shortened even if they do come back effectively.
Daniel Hudson, who was once a starting pitcher before undergoing two Tommy Johns, has been able to stick around by moving to the bullpen. Nathan Eovaldi is the most successful case of a second Tommy John, but the list doesn’t extend much further.
The odds have been stacked against Buehler from the beginning, but perhaps a full offseason of health and a reset can help him get back on track. Buehler is also one of the smartest pitchers in baseball, which does give him an edge in trying to figure this out.
Dodgers confident in Walker Buehler
Earlier this season, Roberts expressed confidence that Buehler could be an impact pitcher for the Dodgers in the postseason if needed.
As it currently stands, Buehler would appear to have a spot in the Dodgers postseason rotation, but that could change based on performance and pitchers returning from injury.
Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are projected to return before the playoffs, and they’ll join Jack Flaherty as the top three options. After that, whoever is healthy and pitching the best down the stretch would seemingly have the edge on the final spot or two.
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