Walker Buehler struggled throughout the regular season but found a new gear during the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 2024 World Series run. The right-hander finished the postseason with 13 consecutive scoreless innings, including six against the New York Yankees.
Buehler’s only start of the Fall Classic came in Game 3 at Yankee Stadium. He allowed just two hits and collected five strikeouts against two walks in five innings pitched.
The solid outing wasn’t without some pregame frustrations. While Buehler was warming up in the bullpen, the lights at Yankee Stadium went out during rapper Fat Joe’s performance on the field.
Buehler recalled the frustrating experience and detailed how he had to improvise, via “Just Baseball Fans:”
“First off, they treat you so good in New York. In the visiting clubhouse, you’re so comfortable, the food is unbelievable. It’s pro-pro there, which is really kind of a cool deal. But, and I don’t know how intentional this was, or who made this decision, but the game is at whatever – I think it was at 7:15 – and they got Fat Joe going out there.
“They turned off the entire stadium lights, including the bullpens, from 7:02 until 7:13. They did not turn the lights back on until the Yankees went onto the field. So there was eight or 10 minutes that I needed to throw about 12 more pitches. The catcher could not see the ball, so I didn’t get to throw a single ball.
“So what I ended up doing, is we have the Trackman out there, which is on a tripod. I fired six balls directly at the Trackman before that start. Normally what I do is all my windups, we do the anthem, I do my stretch. I got like three throws out of the stretch before that game, and six of them I just whizzed at the Trackman with (Mark) Prior just throwing me a new ball every time. So there was like six balls sprayed all over the bullpen.
“I walked in, the lights are still off. The Yankees take the field while I’m walking in and I walk up to the umpire and I go, ‘They got to fix this [expletive] for tomorrow.’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, I don’t know why they did that or how they can do that.’ I was like, ‘You guys need to tell somebody.’
“So we walk in to the dugout and everyone was like, ‘You good?’ Because I was pissed off. So I was like, ‘Yeah, they [expletive] up,’ and then I just walked in and we had the game.”
While Buehler understandably wasn’t happy with the Yankees, the incident ultimately did not affect his performance on the mound.
Buehler had the last laugh as he memorably closed out Game 5 of the World Series on just one day of rest. He retired all three batters on 16 pitches en route to his first Major League save.
Buehler will be seeing a lot more of the Yankees going forward as he recently joined the Boston Red Sox on a one-year contract in free agency.
The signing ended Buehler’s near-decade stint with the Dodgers organization. In parts of seven big league seasons, he went 47-22 with a 3.27 ERA and 1.09 WHIP in 131 games (122 starts).
NL executive praises Red Sox signing Walker Buehler
A National League executive went on the record of saying the Red Sox’s signing of Buehler could be the steal of the offseason.
The 30-year-old signed with the team for the equivalent of the qualifying offer, which the Dodgers decided not to extend to Buehler.
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