Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — If you are anything like me, you were watching Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Braves and let out a mighty “Here we go again!” when Walker Buehler started to struggle with his command in the bottom of the third. It looked like we were headed for yet another disappointing Buehler start, followed by the obligatory cringe-inducing postgame interviews where the Dodgers righthander tries to explain what went wrong. It’s a scenario that’s played itself out a half dozen times at least in 2024.
Only here’s the thing. That’s NOT what happened this time. After giving up two runs in that inning on a combination of poor control and unfortunate defense, Buehler righted the ship. He buzzed through the mighty Braves lineup for the next three innings on just 27 pitches. By the end of the night, Buetane had delivered the elusive “quality start” on 97 pitches (63 for strikes): 6.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 5 K. And perhaps most importantly, NO home runs surrendered, which has been a problem this season for Buehler.
“It was huge,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said to reporters after the game. “I believe in who he is. But you do have to get results as a player to build that confidence, that momentum. This was a big step. It really was. I talk about performing and results at this time of the season, and the results were very good.”
Bueler was less effusive with his praise for the outing, but was keenly aware of the meaning of the start. “Two runs, I don’t feel super great about. But it felt kind of like we minimized it in some way,” he said after the game. “Start creating a little bit of momentum after that, and hopefully that momentum helped our team later in the game. I think it’s a big win, kind of however you want to look at it.”
Lest we get too excited by one start, we should remember that we’ve seen flashes of Cy-Young-caliber Buehler before this season. You’ll recall that in his third start of the 2024 campaign, Buehler threw six scoreless innings in a home start against the Cincinnati Reds only to get shelled pretty badly in subsequent outings. So far this year, he has thrown just three “quality starts” (defined by MLB as a six inning start with no more than three earned runs allowed).
However, there is another thing that we need to keep in mind. Walker Buehler is a Ferrari, no a Toyota. He’s one of those high performance European sports cars that spends more time in the shop than on the road. However, once he does get rolling, look out. He’s always started slow in his seasons. In 2018, his first full season in the bigs, he had a 3.45 ERA before the All-Star break before finishing strong with a 2.03 second half. In 2019, same story, but a little less pronounced: 3.46 pre-ASB, 2.99 post-ASB. In the Covid shortened 2020, Buehler’s ERA was 4.22 at the end of August before he delivered a 1.54 ERA in September and 1.80 ERA in the postseason drive to the World Series. The only season in which he faded a bit as the season wore on was in his best year, 2021, in which he pitched a career-high 207.2 innings. In that campaign, he had a 2.05 ERA at the end of August, but faded a bit as he approached the tape and ended up the year with a still-great 2.49 ERA.
Of course, no such comparisons are really possible in the injury-shortened 2022 season or in 2023 when there were no stats at all due to Tommy John recovery. And none of this is to say that I’m expecting anything approaching prime-era Walker Buehler the rest of the way. I’m just saying that given his history, it wouldn’t be surprising if it happened.
And one other thing about Buehler. Maybe more than any other Dodgers pitcher in recent memory, Buehler has that “dawg” in him, as the kids like to say these days. He thrives in the big moment. So, it wasn’t that shocking that he came up with a good start on Sunday Night Baseball against the Atlanta Braves, the team that handed him his last postseason defeat in the 2021 NLCS. We started to see a little of that swagger on the mound on Sunday. Let’s hope there’s more where that came from.
The Dodgers’ hopes of postseason glory may depend on it.
Have you subscribed to the Bleed Los Podcast YouTube channel? Be sure to ring the notification bell to watch player interviews, participate in shows & promotions, and stay up to date on all Dodgers news and rumors!
