After receiving stellar starts from Jack Flaherty and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the Los Angeles Dodgers hope for similar results when they give the ball to Walker Buehler in Game 3 of the World Series against the New York Yankees.
The right-hander is coming off his best start of the 2024 postseason as he logged four scoreless innings against the New York Mets in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series.
Buehler also started against the San Diego Padres in Game 3 of the NL Division Series and allowed six runs over five innings of work.
The 30-year-old has made 17 postseason starts in his career, with seven of those coming in the third game of a series. That includes a pair of World Series starts against the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays.
“I’ve never thrown any game other than Game 3 in the World Series, so I’m kind of familiar that way a little bit,” Buehler noted.
“Obviously we were here earlier in the year, but I didn’t throw. I’ve never thrown here, so that will be exciting. And Game 3 of the World Series, it doesn’t get more exciting than that.”
Buehler believes there is some benefit to having seen Flaherty and Yamamoto pitch well against the Yankees, but ultimately he too will need to rely on what makes the most personal sense.
“Yeah, all three of us being right-handed certainly helps,” Buehler began.
“I think at the end of the day it’s kind of that weaving what we do well versus what they don’t do so well. I think both those guys did a really good job of kind of going to their strengths when they needed to.
“They both did really good jobs. I think at the end of the day, this game, at least from our perspective, is executing what we’re trying to do and kind of expecting that to work out well.”
Buehler has a reputation for succeeding in big games and he will be leaning on that experience against the Yankees.
“I think in any of these kind of big-game scenarios you talk about, all the momentum and the hoopla and all that stuff, I think it’s just learning how to kind of embrace that,” he said. “I think pretty early in my career I learned how to do that in some ways. It hasn’t always worked out very good, but I think that’s the mental hurdle.
“And then it’s kind of the same game, just on a bigger stage.”
Dave Roberts confident in Walker Buehler
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts believes Buehler will once again rise to the occasion when he takes the mound against the Yankees. “I feel great having Walker take the baseball on the road against a team that hasn’t seen him a whole bunch,” Roberts said.
“He’s a big-game pitcher, and every game in the World Series is a big game. We have an opportunity to put some distance in this series.”
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