Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — Series tied up. Emotions running hot. If ever there was a pitcher more built for this moment than the Dodgers’ Walker Buehler, I don’t know who that might be. The Dodgers’ biggest “big game” pitcher since Orel Hershiser takes to the mound in Petco Park on Tuesday in San Diego, but before he does, he stopped by the media room at Dodger Stadium to discuss the upcoming start.
In discussing his progress since his return from the IL, Buehler had a clear-headed assessment of where he is right now. “I don’t know if I’d say like everything came together… but you know some of the other stuff that we look at you know outside of just Innings and runs and stuff like that wasn’t quite where I wanted to be but um you know the past month and a half or so I felt pretty good and and kind of got more into a routine and I think being able to go on regular rest helped um at least mentally knowing that you can can do that I think is a a step forward for me.” Buehler was referring to his final outing of the season, in which he held the powerful Padre offense to just one earned run over five innings in late September.
When asked about controlling his emotions on the mound on Tuesday, he gave a typically Buehler-eque response, “I don’t know for me control is kind of is not really the goal I think embracing it or channeling it because it’s going to happen and and especially here obviously um um you know being an hour and a half up the road you know it kind of tends to to lead to that kind of stuff and um you know the energy of of our fans and their fans is something that that all of us kind of live for.”
Of course, Buehler knows that it’s critical for the Dodgers to get off to a better start in Game 3 than they were able to in Games 1 and 2, where starters Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Jack Flaherty both got their teams in a big hole early, only one of which the offense was about to crawl out of. Buehler said, “For me that the first inning has been huge this year obviously I’ve struggled in the first inning but the games that I’ve gotten through the first clean have typically been pretty pretty successful outings for me so um yeah getting three outs in the bottom of the first will be huge for me.”
“We play in these games every year,” he said, regarding the prospect of the Dodgers being on the brink of elimination if they should lose Game 3, “every team that makes the playoffs plays in a game that that is you know the swing game or the big momentum game and and I just so happen to be starting this one… you know I’ve thrown game sixes I’ve thrown game sevens… game threes game whatever like I’ve throwing all these games and so um that’s not the stuff that really I get super wrapped up in… I want to try and go make a quality start and put our team in a position to win the game.”
Game 2 from Petco Park will start at 6:08 PDT. Hopefully, the Dodgers can get Walker some runs early and Buetane can just let it eat for five or six innings. Let’s do this!
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