The Los Angeles Dodgers have the deepest starting pitching staff in all of baseball, but their two prominent right-handers — Trevor Bauer and Walker Buehler — both struggled on consecutive days.
One day after Bauer allowed three home runs to the Seattle Mariners in one inning, Buehler surrendered four in a loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. Included in those were Milwaukee going back-to-back as part of a three-homer inning, and Keston Hiura slugging two off Buehler.
“Not much you can, really,” answered Buehler when asked what he can take from a subpar outing. “Gave up nine runs in 4.2. Not a whole lot worse you can do. Hopefully that’s as bad as I am all year.
“Not a good enough fastball and in predictable fastball counts. They got the barrel on them, so just tip your cap to them. I’ve got one more before the season, so just going to move forward and get ready for that one. It’s hard to be that bad and not take something from it, but we’ll be fine.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts noted some of the home runs the Brewers hit were “fly balls” that simply carried out because of the wind. But whether or not that was a factor carried little significance to Buehler. “They went over the fence,” he said.
Buehler’s next start — and final tuneup of Spring Training — is expected to come Sunday or Monday in the exhibition Freeway Series. It’s undecided if the outing will be shortened or another opportunity to continue stretching out.
That he threw 84 pitches against the Brewers was considered a silver lining. “I would’ve like to have gotten through the fifth and faced a hitter in the sixth, but got to a decent count so we’ll just kind of piece it together as we go,” Buehler said.
With their effort Tuesday, the Brewers hit a combined eight home runs this spring off Bauer, Buehler and Clayton Kershaw.
Buehler not worried about fastball velocity
Roberts believed some of Buehler’s woes stemmed from committing to throwing the fastball regardless of the situation and outcomes. It lacked the usual zip, which is common for any pitcher in Spring Training.
“I felt good about it my last outing against the White Sox,” Buehler said when asked to evaluate his heater this spring. “You kind of hope and believe the adrenaline of the season can kind of jump it up a little bit. I feel OK about it.
“I don’t feel ecstatic about it, I don’t feel like I’m throwing pitches like I was kind of at the end of last year. Again, this is the time to kind of build up and get ready.”
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