With the National League Championship Series all knotted up at one win apiece, the Los Angeles Dodgers return home and send rookie sensation Walker Buehler to the mound in a pivotal swing game against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Still just 24 years old, Buehler is set to make another high-stakes start under the national spotlight. While some pitchers typically succumb to this kind of pressure, the right-hander revealed he was relatively calm in his first test against the Atlanta Braves in Game 3 of the NL Division Series.
“I would say Atlanta, the outing didn’t go the way we wanted to. Especially in the situation that I was in, you could say that there was a little bit of nerves and anxiety but that happens,” Buehler admitted. “My first time there, I think I handled it fine. My heartbeat, I felt good with. And was more upset about kind of the decision to throw certain pitches.
“But, I mean pitching in college and in the conference like I did, I think you play in some games that at the time you feel have big meaning and stuff like that. So that kind of excitement and anxiety that you have before big games that I think is now foreign to me; but Major League playoffs definitely are. Having been there once there’s not so much now. But I think it’s just the growth of playing in enough games and playing in enough games that you feel are really important that becomes a little bit more routine.”
In his first career postseason start against the Braves, Buehler was solid in yielding only two hits and three walks across five innings of work. But he was also tabbed for five runs in the second frame, issuing a bases-loaded walk to Sean Newcomb before allowing a two-out grand slam to Ronald Acuña Jr.
Buehler vowed to learn from this experience and revealed afterward that he didn’t spend too much time watching over the game tape, opting to instead put the shaky outing behind him. “I don’t go back and watch a whole lot,” he said.
“I know what happened and I was there. So I’m more of a positive feedback guy. So the only games I want to watch are the good ones and move forward and stick with what I have.”
Given the success he enjoyed in the second half of the regular season, one would think Buehler spent plenty of time watching over footage of himself after each dominant start. But the right-hander didn’t feel that was necessary because of the way he was throwing the ball.
“I think everyone is pretty well-versed in the idea of tapes, and I guess back in the day you would have a VHS tape,” Buehler said.
“But to be honest with you, man, the kind of roll I’ve been on the second half, I feel like I’ve thrown the ball pretty well and haven’t really needed to do a whole lot of that. I watched some of that stuff, just watching the strikeouts from the year, after the Anaheim start.
“And that’s when we were looking at differences and mechanical stuff. There’s a benefit in doing that, but at the same time if I feel good with where I’m at I don’t really need to go and do that stuff.”
Now tasked with having to overcome a difficult Brewers lineup, Buehler preached the importance of limiting mistakes and making good pitches. “They’re good players, obviously they’re better players right now in [Christian] Yelich and [Lorenzo] Cain has been here and done that before, as well as [Mike] Moustakas,” Buehler said.
“They’ve got the two big righties with Braun and Aguilar. It’s a pretty strong lineup. And we’ve seen kind of what they can do. And they’re not here by accident. So we have to go out and execute our game plan, but we’re not here by accident, either, it should be a good game.”
Buehler was observant of how other Dodgers pitchers approached the likes of Cain and Yelich, but admitted he’ll need to follow through with his own game plan to be successful. “Yes and no,” he said of being able to pick up tactics from the pitching staff.
“You can kind of watch a hitter’s approach and kind of their presence in the box and be ready for that. But in terms of actual, Hey, this guy got out on this pitch, I don’t think it really lines up too well for me with those two guys.”
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