As a young pitcher, Walker Buehler watched Clayton Kershaw carry the burden of greatness. Buehler wondered what that might feel like, to know that an entire organization—in some ways, an entire city—depended on you to win every five days. He tried to imagine whether he could shoulder it. In 2021, at 26, when he led the league in games started (33) and adjusted ERA+ (171, 71% better than league average); finished second in WAR for pitchers (7.1) and innings pitched (207 2⁄3), he began to sense its pressure, and he found he loved it.
Then he got hurt seeking that weight, and then he was terrible. Forget the hopes and dreams of an organization or a city. Four months ago, before he threw five scoreless innings against the New York Yankees in Game 3 of the World Series to pull the Los Angeles Dodgers to the precipice of a title, he wasn’t sure he was fit to take a major league mound.
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Buehler, 30, spent most of July away from Los Angeles, trying to fix the delivery that had generated a 5.84 ERA in eight starts since his second Tommy John surgery. He threw a bullpen session in August that felt more like the old Buehler. He began to see himself differently. Maybe he didn’t have to carry that burden. Maybe he could share it with his teammates.
“That freedom of not having to be the guy all the time, I think it’s been a big thing for me,” he said on Thursday. He added, “Sometimes I wish I had that weight back, but right now I feel pretty good not having it.”
Well, as it turned out, that pressure was right where he left it, and he was so glad to pick it back up. Buehler recorded his second straight scoreless outing Monday after holding his opponents scoreless just once during the regular season.
“I think, as kind of brutal as it is to say, it takes that adrenaline and stuff to kind of really get me going mentally,” he admitted Monday night, grinning in the wake of his best start of the year. “I wish I would have felt that all year. I could tell you I’m excited to pitch every single game I’ve ever gone out there, but there is something different in the playoffs.
“At least long-term for me, to get through the playoffs in the way that I have, it’s really encouraging for me personally, because I know it’s in there and I’ve just got to unlock it a little bit. But that feeling of There’s an organization relying on me today to win a playoff game, I think it’s kind of the weight that I like feeling and kind of gets me in a certain place mentally that it’s kind of hard to replicate.”
Buehler likes to say that being thought of as a big-game pitcher is “kind of all I care about.” His career ERA drops as he pitches deeper into October: 4.50 in one wild card game start, 4.10 in seven division series starts, 3.15 in seven championship series starts, 0.50 in three World Series starts.
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No one in the Dodgers clubhouse has forgotten how he volunteered to start Game 6 of the 2021 National League Championship Series on short rest after Max Scherzer withdrew citing an “overcooked” arm. Buehler struggled that night; the following June, he left a start with elbow discomfort, and he underwent surgery that August. It took him 22 months to return to the major leagues. He will be a free agent when this run is over; the injury may have cost him nine figures.
“He hurt himself trying to get this team to a World Series,” said reliever Daniel Hudson. “You want that guy on your team.”
During Monday’s 4–2 win, he gave them everything he had. He held the Yankees hitless through three, even with velocity a few ticks below the 98 mph he regularly flashed before his surgery. But he kept hitters off-balance by mixing all six of his pitches and showcasing a fastball that seemed to rise, inducing hitters to swing underneath it. “It’s a good sign for Walker when they’re doing that,” said third baseman Max Muncy.
With one out in the fourth and the Dodgers up 2–0, Giancarlo Stanton doubled to left. But right fielder Mookie Betts made a diving snag of a sinking liner off the bat of Jazz Chisholm, and then when Anthony Volpe singled to right and Stanton tried to score, left fielder Teoscar Hernández fired a bullet to the plate to end the inning. Buehler retired the next three hitters he faced to polish off his night.
“I think this team is just different than the teams we’ve had before in terms of the way we operate in there with the 26 guys that are active that day,” he said. “There’s this bond that’s kind of different. We play for each other. That play from Teo is kind of significant in terms of what I’m saying in that, like, O.K., I slipped a little. I gave up a couple hits, and we cover it. I haven’t been on that many teams that we cover each other the way this team does.”
He smiled and added, “I’ve also never been on a team that’s up 3–0 in the World Series.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Walker Buehler Burnishes Big-Game Reputation in Dodgers’ Game 3 Win.
