LOS ANGELES — Walker Buehler awoke after surgery last month, received the news he had been quietly bracing to hear, then put himself back in a familiar state of mind.
For the second time in his career, the Dodgers pitcher had to undergo Tommy John surgery, when damage to his ulnar collateral ligament was discovered and repaired during a season-ending elbow operation on Aug. 23.
He didn't receive the official diagnosis until he had woken up from the anesthetics, since pre-surgery MRI exams hadn't been able to clearly determine the full extent of an elbow injury that'd kept him off a mound since June.
