NEW YORK – It had been 1,109 days since Walker Buehler looked this good.
In Game 3 of the National League Championship Series on Wednesday, the Dodgers starter drew 18 swings and misses from Mets batters in just four innings of work, his highest raw total in a single outing since his last start of 2021. Not even the Los Angeles bullpen allowed a run. The Dodgers, buoyed by a trio of home runs, including a supersonic shot by Shohei Ohtani, won in an 8-0 rout.
For Buehler, it was a brilliant return to form on a cold afternoon in the Big Apple.
Buehler, once the impenetrable ace of a perennial contender, is now a different pitcher. Arm injuries robbed him of most of three seasons and undermined his once unwavering confidence. He endured an on-again, off-again 2024 during which he spent a month away from the team to rehabilitate a bad hip at a private training facility.
Buehler steadied the ship a bit down the stretch, but his selection as Los Angeles’ Game 3 playoff starter had as much to do with the team’s pitching infirmary as any obvious right-handed bounce. In his first postseason start last week against San Diego in the NLDS, he allowed six runs in a Los Angeles loss. With the National League Championship Series tied at one heading into raucous Citi Field on Wednesday, the Dodgers needed their embattled former ace to turn back the clock.
And Buehler delivered.
“I don’t trust anyone but Walker,” veteran Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes told Yahoo Sports after the game. “His ability to, you know, be alive in those moments. Many people can’t. Since I have been here, he has played many important games for us. And no matter what happens early in the season or how he felt, I trust him to go out and compete.”
The competition came early in Game 3. In the bottom of the second, the Mets loaded the bases with one out, two walks and an infield single. With a pair of runs in the top half of the frame, Buehler was playing with fire, giving the hosts an opportunity for a counterpunch. But the brash right-hander pounced, striking out Francisco Álvarez and Francisco Lindor to end the threat.
His strikeout pitch to Lindor (a full-count knuckleball curveball that dodged a monster attack from the Mets’ superstar shortstop) was classic Buehler. He bounced off the mound in a cloud of bragging, shouting at himself and no one and everyone at the same time.
Buehler has always straddled the fine line between confidence and arrogance, and has sometimes gone further.
This is a man who prefers to open beer bottles with his teeth because “It’s fun and makes you feel great.” At his best, Buehler is arrogant, boastful, and unapologetic. A rottweiler in 90 degree heat. An F-bomb geyser on the mound and on the record. Better than you and very aware of it. That confidence bred success, which only bred more confidence.
It was a powerful, nearly unstoppable cycle that propelled Buehler to the top of his craft.
From 2018 to 2021, the swashbuckling right-hander posted the fourth-lowest ERA in the Major Leagues, behind such luminaries as Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander. During Los Angeles’ championship run in the shortened 2020 season, Buehler was the club’s undisputed ace, the obvious choice to start Game 1 in each of the first three rounds. In five starts that October, he allowed five runs total.
The following season, he was even better, earning a fourth-place finish in the Cy Young with a 2.47 ERA in over 200 frames. He was, quite simply, one of the best pitchers in the world.
Then came the injuries, as often happens to those who dedicate themselves to this type of work. In August 2022, he had a second Tommy John surgery (he had one right after being drafted in 2015) along with an additional procedure on his flexor tendon. Buehler’s rehab was a sobering reminder that the path to returning from elbow surgery is not always linear. Twenty-three months passed, from June 2022 to May 2024, between starts in the Major Leagues.
Buehler has been surprisingly honest about the difficulties of that process, although he was reluctant to classify his performance in Game 3 as redemption. For him, at least publicly, it was just another playoff victory.
“It doesn’t mean much more to me than winning Game 3 of the National League Championship Series,” he said in his postgame interview. “I think it might mean a lot to me down the road, but right now I’m going to enjoy tonight and then get ready if we have to play Game 7.”
After a high pitch count limited Buehler to just four innings on Wednesday, the bullpen quartet of Michael Kopech, Ryan Brasier, Blake Treinen and Ben Casparius didn’t blink, combining for five scoreless. The Mets managed just three baserunners against the Dodgers relievers. Postseason prophet Enrique Hernandez added a two-run shot, the 15th home run of his playoff career, to provide some protection in the sixth inning.
From there, the match seemed headed for a forgettable ending. But Ohtani wouldn’t let that happen. In the eighth inning, with two runners on base, the two-time MVP silenced the already quiet crowd with a stunning overhead moonshot. The home run pushed Ohtani’s playoff line with runners on base to an absurd 7-for-9 with two home runs.
Ohtani’s swing also sent disgruntled Mets fans running through the halls. By the bottom of the eighth, the lower area of Citi Field was dotted with empty seats reflecting the lights of the stadium. It was a strange image. Since the now-infamous team meeting that precipitated a historic turnaround on May 30, the Mets were 27-5 in home night games. Seeing this team losing in this scenario seemed strange in and of itself. What was at stake only increased the disappointment.
But no matter how bad it was for the hosts, there are many series left. New York will send crafty lefty José Quintana, who has been outstanding for two months, to the mound in Game 4. Los Angeles will counter with the exciting Japanese Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
On Wednesday, however, it was all about Buehler, who is now second in Dodgers history in playoff starts, behind only Clayton Kershaw. There remains a small chance that the third game will be the last. Buehler is a free agent this winter and his return to Chavez Ravine is far from guaranteed.
On the other hand, three straight Mets wins seem unlikely, lining up Buehler for Game 7 of the NLCS or a World Series start. Either of the two would be another opportunity to continue rewriting his history.