Taking a step back to admire the Los Angeles Dodgers’ journey throughout the 2024 postseason, it becomes more and more astonishing that they were able to end it with Walker Buehler collecting the final three outs of a World Series championship.
A team with only three healthy starters in their rotation would be lucky to make it past the Championship Series, and yet the Dodgers were able to do that and so much more.
At the start, it could have been argued that Jack Flaherty was the only Dodgers’ pitcher without any major unknowns hanging over his head. Although, even he had some concerns with his velocity.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto had only made four starts since returning from a strained right rotator cuff that caused him to miss nearly three months of the season. He was not even a month removed from his activation before having to start Game 2 of the National League Division Series.
However, it was Buehler who was the ultimate wild card in the Dodgers’ rotation after a disappointing regular season performance in which he was trying to remodel himself as a pitcher on the fly.
Despite having a 5.38 ERA in 75.1 innings during the regular season, all of that went out the window in the postseason as Buehler looked rejuvenated on the mound during the NLCS and World Series.
Buehler’s ability to suddenly find success in the postseason after searching for it throughout the 2024 regular season can be attributed to his supreme confidence in these situations, and that translated to taking the ball to close out the World Series.
With Buehler’s success in October came a caption he often included on Instagram posts of, “Who Else?” He explained that mindset to Jeff Passan of ESPN:
“That’s how I feel about myself,” Buehler said. “Who else is going to do it? Who else is going to be out there? Who else is supposed to do this? We’ve got 30 guys that believe that same way. And I was just the one in the spot to do it.”
Buehler had six runs charged to him in Game 3 of the NLDS after being let down by the defense, but after that he was lights-out during the postseason with a combined 10 scoreless innings across the NLCS and World Series.
Game 3 is one of the most important in a series. It can allow a team to take the advantage in the series, put the opposing team in an insurmountable hole, or vice versa. Buehler took the mound in Game 3 for the Dodgers in all three of their playoff series and helped them come out on top in two of those.
In the NLCS, he quieted a Mets offense that scored seven runs the game prior and helped the Dodgers take a 2-1 series lead. In the World Series, Buehler put the Dodgers in an extremely favorable situation with a 3-0 series lead, and to top it off, he recorded the final three outs in Game 5 when the Dodgers had no other options.
At the end of the day, the ability to perform in October comes down to the mindset that all great postseason performers posses.
“Who else? There’s certain players that like the spotlight, that like playing in October,” Kiké Hernández said. “I can attest to that. It doesn’t matter what the regular season looks like. When this comes, we start over. We start at zero and we do it one game at a time.”
“And this guy has proven year after year that when there’s a big game and the Dodgers need a win, he’s the right guy to be on the mound. Every time he’s on the mound, especially in October, we feel good about our chances.”
Walker Buehler wanted to pitch in Game 5
Buehler closing out the series clinching game of the World Series was not in the Dodgers’ game plan by any means, but because of the quick hook on Flaherty, it became a necessity.
Once it became possible for the Dodgers to close out the series in New York, Buehler let his availability be known to his manager in the seventh inning and the rest was history.
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