The Los Angeles Dodgers offense powered their way to a 6-4 win in the middle game of their three-game set with the Baltimore Orioles, helping out Walker Buehler, who took the mound for his 11th start of the year.
Buehler spoke following his previous start, hinting that he was ‘closer’ to his old self than the results may indicate. That statement was reinforced by a solid line on Wednesday, when he was tabbed with just two earned runs on five hits over 4.2 innings.
“I mean in general, I think pretty encouraging,” Buehler said. “Obviously, my last start, I kind of talked about feeling more like myself, and tonight, I think it was that, but more. Obviously kind of some weird plays in that game and it happens. It is what it is… But no, I felt a lot better. I’m as encouraged as I’ve been since 2021 probably.”
The 30-year-old notched 12 whiffs on the night, with four strikeouts. Buehler was on the unfortunate end of some poor defense from his own teammates. Thankfully, his stuff kept the damage to a minimum and shades of a more positive view of what could be developing with the veteran right-hander.
“I think the longer I’ve been here, the more we look at these kind of underlying numbers stuff and all of that,” Buehler began “And I think tonight was probably one of my better starts in a long time, from swing and miss, strike percentage, things like that. And so you kind of have to trust that and believe that it’s all going to even out or whatever.
“But it’s one of the better offenses in baseball right now, and I felt like at least I had a fighting chance to get everybody out. It wasn’t kind of like, I hope they get themselves out. I felt like I could get guys out. And there’s bits and pieces that didn’t go perfectly like that, but for the most part, I felt pretty competitive.”
The Dodgers benefitted from a competitive outing from Buehler, which is likely to have bought him some deserved time in the starting rotation until things becoming clearer. His successful night wasn’t lost on those around him, especially the coaching staff who noticed an uptick in performance.
“Absolutely, this is the first night I’ve seen the delivery, the tempo synced up,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “The ball was coming out really well. He’s worked his tail off with our pitching guys, strength and conditioning guys, performance guys, to get his body in position to, throw the baseball the way he threw the ball tonight.
“The life of the ball, the fastball was missing bats, the direction was good. It was like using his body the right way. And gosh, we haven’t seen that quite some time. With that, you could just see the confidence, certainly at that first inning, and the second inning, I don’t know what team was playing defense that second inning, we certainly didn’t help Walker out, but for him to kind of reset, gather himself, and still throw the baseball the way he did was big for his confidence, for us.
“I’m looking forward to him building on this, because if he keeps in that delivery, and then the way he spinning the baseball, the curveball was as good as I’ve seen it in a couple years, the fastball, the cutter late. So yeah, he was ripping it tonight.”
What’s next for Walker Buehler?
Buehler’s Wednesday start provided the Dodgers with a solid view of what could be on the horizon for when things click right. The increase in curveball usage was interesting, while he landed 48% of them in the strike zone.
His cutter has been the consistent piece of his arsenal, and while his four-seam fastball had previously faltered in obvious counts, Buehler and Will Smith executed better than the stat line shows.
The Dodgers need him to stay in the starting rotation with a few of their front-end guys still out. Buehler could, however, be playing his way into a different, but meaningful, role.
Have you subscribed to the Dodger Blue YouTube channel? Be sure to ring the notification bell to watch player interviews, participate in shows and giveaways, and stay up to date on all Dodgers news and rumors!
