No one in the Dodgers’ front office or coaching staff had to ask Walker Buehler the question. He had already come to them with the answer.
So it was that Buehler found himself back on the mound when Game 4 of the National League Division Series turned into a potential elimination scenario for the Dodgers. It was his first career start on less than four days’ rest.
Looking no worse for the wear, Buehler threw 4⅓ scoreless innings Tuesday. The Giants only tacked a run on his ledger after Joe Kelly took over in the fifth inning. Buehler allowed three hits, walked two batters, and struck out four on 71 pitches.
“To be honest, there wasn’t anything that could’ve been going on that I would’ve told him I didn’t want the ball,” Buehler said. “As long as I could walk into the clubhouse, I think I was going to pitch.”
Buehler also reached base in the fourth inning when his ground ball back to the mound took a fortuitous bounce off pitcher Jarlin Garcia. The next batter, Mookie Betts, hit a two-run home run to give the Dodgers a 4-0 lead.
Buehler has started the last two postseason elimination games at Dodger Stadium and taken a no-decision each time. Unlike Game 5 of the 2019 NLDS against the Washington Nationals, the Dodgers won Tuesday, 7-2, to extend their season by at least a couple of days. Game 5 of the NLDS is Thursday night in San Francisco.
“We wanted to make sure he woke up (Tuesday) feeling good,” Manager Dave Roberts said of Buehler, “so once he came today and felt good, it was a no-brainer.”
The Dodgers hand-picked Buehler for Game 1 of the series last Friday in San Francisco. Buehler turned in a decent effort, allowing three runs on 6⅓ innings, but his counterpart Logan Webb was the superior pitcher in a 4-0 Giants win.
After Julio Urías and Max Scherzer started Games 2 and 3, respectively, right-hander Tony Gonsolin was lined up to pitch in Game 4. On Monday, Dodgers catcher Will Smith even went so far as to say that Gonsolin would start the game.
Roberts didn’t offer even a vague hint about who would start after the Dodgers’ 1-0 loss in Game 3 on Monday. But by Tuesday afternoon, the manager was willing to acknowledge what many fans already knew to be true about Buehler: “He’s our best option to start, and he didn’t run from it.”
Buehler’s fastball touched 97.5 mph in the first inning, in line with his velocity all season. His final pitch to Steven Duggar in the fifth inning registered 96.6 mph. In between, he retired 13 of the 18 men he faced.
“He was making pitches,” Dodgers catcher Will Smith said. “He had his offspeed working. He had his fastball. He was overpowering them.”
The changeup might have been Buehler’s most effective pitch. He threw nine of them – seven for strikes – something the Giants were not expecting.
“Over the course of the year it’s developed and gotten better and better,” Smith said of Buehler’s changeup. “He had a good feel for it tonight so we leaned on it a little bit more. He was executing.”
Buehler got into and out of a jam in the second inning, when San Francisco used a pair of singles to put runners on first and third with one out. After striking out Evan Longoria, Buehler got a left-handed hitter, Mike Yastrzemski, to line out to end the inning.
By the fifth inning, Buehler’s command was beginning to waver. The one-out walk to Duggar followed an opposite-field poke single by Longoria.
Pitching with a 4-0 lead, Kelly promptly allowed a single to Tommy La Stella to load the bases. The Dodgers conceded a run on a groundout by Darin Ruf, before Kelly got Brandon Crawford to ground out to end the inning.
Buehler fell two outs shy of qualifying for the victory, which would have been the fourth of his postseason career in his 13th start.
“I think he’s one of the best, if not the best postseason pitcher in baseball,” the Dodgers’ Chris Taylor said. “Just the mentality he has, and he’s got the power, strikeout stuff. He attacks hitters. Yeah, it’s exactly who we want out there.”
Before Friday, Buehler had not lost a postseason game since Game 3 of the 2018 NL Championship Series in Milwaukee. He has a 2.50 ERA across 72 career postseason innings.
The Dodgers had turned to Buehler in an elimination scenario last fall. Needing a win to even the NL Championship Series 3-3, Buehler shut out the Atlanta Braves for six innings in Game 6 in Arlington, Texas.
The Dodgers came back to win that series the following day, before beating the Tampa Bay Rays to win the World Series.
“Walker’s one of the best playoff pitchers I’ve ever seen and he loves big games,” Dodgers pitcher Blake Treinen said. “He loves the moment. And this is a team that’s made for him and he’s, like this is his, the moment to shine. He did it last year for us. With the back against the wall, he was our stopper. And we have so many capable arms, but it says a lot about him being able to take the ball in a situation like this.”