The Los Angeles Dodgers weren’t left with very many options when cobbling together their pitching staff for the 2024 postseason, and they were limited to a trio of starters for their entire World Series run in Jack Flaherty, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Walker Buehler.
Bullpen games were used to fill in the gaps and for a time, the Dodgers were able to get away with it through good execution and an explosive offense that gave pitchers comfortable leads to work with.
Their success against the San Diego Padres and New York Mets masked just how vulnerable a state they were in due to their lack of starting pitching. But in Game 5 of the World Series against the New York Yankees, the worst-case scenario became a reality.
After a bullpen game the previous night, Flaherty only lasted 1.1 innings in Game 5, which forced the Dodgers to expend all of their resources with multiple innings to cover.
Buehler, who had just pitched five innings in Game 3, was counting the outs the Dodgers needed, and the math wasn’t adding up for the amount of available pitchers remaining in the bullpen.
While appearing on the “On Base With Mookie Betts” podcast with his other teammates, Buehler shared the conversation he had with himself that led to his decision to be available for the ninth, drawing inspiration from Clayton Kershaw:
“For me, the first thing honestly, I said what would 22 do? And 22 would be out there. He was hurt and all that [expletive], so I guess I had to [expletive] do it.”
Kershaw has been the heart and soul of the Dodgers’ franchise for close to two decades now, but he was unavailable for the postseason due to injury. The future Hall of Famer famously closed out Game 5 of the NL Division Series against the Washington Nationals in 2016 after relieving Kenley Jansen in the ninth inning.
To even receive the opportunity to close out Game 5 of the World Series, Buehler needed to employ some deception when talking to pitching coach Mark Prior. Thankfully for Buehler and the Dodgers, it all worked out pretty well in the end.
Walker Buehler explains ‘Who Else’ mantra
One reason why Buehler is able to perform in big games and again rose to the occasion in Game 5 is due to his mindset as an athlete.
It came through loud and clear when pondering who was going to step up in Kershaw’s place and for the Dodgers in need of more pitching: “Who else” but Buehler.
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