At the start of the fifth inning Monday night, the Yankee Stadium scoreboard implored a quiet crowd in the Bronx.
“EVERYBODY GET LOUD,” it instructed.
“EVERYBODY SCREAM,” it begged.
The subdued 49,368 in attendance hardly reacted.
As he’d done so many times before this time of year, Walker Buehler had already zapped them of any life.
For much of this season — his first back from a second career Tommy John surgery — Buehler looked nothing like his old self. His once-overpowering fastball was getting crushed by opponents. His secondary stuff didn’t have the same life. His mechanics were so out of whack that, during a month-long stint on the injured list in the summer, he went to a private facility in Florida, searching for any shred of consistent effectiveness.
In his final season before a long-awaited free agency, he endured a frustrating six-month grind.
October, however, has been a different story. And on Monday night, it culminated in what could be a storybook finish.
In a 4-2 Dodgers win that gave them a three-games-to-none lead in the World Series, Buehler delivered a vintage October gem to put them on the doorstep of a championship.
Five innings. Zero runs. Five strikeouts.
All in what might be his final start with the organization.
“This is as confident as I’ve seen him,” manager Dave Roberts said in a mid-game interview with Fox. “This is as good as his stuff has been.”
Buehler and the Dodgers are certainly hoping Monday was the right-hander’s last start of this season. His only chance to pitch again in this series wouldn’t come until a potential Game 7. Given the way the first three games have gone, even a fifth game is starting to look unnecessary.
On Monday, the Dodgers knocked Buehler’s counterpart, Yankees right-hander Clarke Schmidt, out of the game early. Freddie Freeman hit a two-run home run in the first, answering chants from the right-field bleachers of “F— you Freddie!” by hitting his third home run of the series straight to them. The Dodgers scored again in the third, when Tommy Edman drew a leadoff walk, took second base on a hit-and-run play with Shohei Ohtani (who was back in the lineup despite his partially dislocated left shoulder), and perfectly read Mookie Betts’ bloop single to right to score without a throw.
From there, however, the Dodgers squandered a couple chances to extend the lead. It was up to Buehler to keep a 3-0 advantage intact.
At times this season, that might have been a recipe for disaster. In the regular season, Buehler had a 5.38 ERA, close to double his previous career 3.02 mark. He yielded at least three runs in all but four of his 16 starts.
“I think I always felt like I was one or two good ones away from being good,” Buehler said earlier this week. “And then I’d have a good one and I still felt two away from being good. So kind of a long road.”
The road got longer in Buehler’s first start of the playoffs, when poor defense and a few misplaced fastballs contributed to a six-run, second-inning disaster in Game 3 of the National League Division Series, making Buehler the losing pitcher in a defeat that moved the Dodgers to the brink of an early elimination.
In two starts since then, though, Buehler has bounced back.
For a 30-year-old veteran who said his reputation as a “#BigGamePitcher” is “kind of the only thing I care about,” his status as such has only been cemented.
After providing four scoreless innings in the Dodgers’ Game 3 NL Championship Series win over the New York Mets two weeks ago, Buehler put together one of his best outings all year Monday.
His once-diminished fastball looked lively and sharp, resulting in five whiffs on eight attempted swings. An array of curveballs, cutters and sinkers complemented it perfectly, holding the Yankees hitless over the first three innings.
Buehler did encounter trouble in the fourth. Giancarlo Stanton lined a one-out double to left. A diving catch by Betts in the next at-bat likely saved a run. With two outs, Anthony Volpe then poked a single to left. But outfielder Teoscar Hernández fielded it and quickly fired home, throwing out the slow-running Stanton with the help of a lightning-quick tag by catcher Will Smith.
That was the only saving Buehler would need all night.
After a one-two-three fifth inning, Roberts went to the bullpen with the top of the Yankees lineup due up a third time.
In three career World Series starts, Buehler has now given up just one run in 18 total innings. Over 18 career postseason outings, his ERA is a sterling 3.07.
It’s the kind of production that should help Buehler as a free agent this winter, despite his lackluster regular season. Whether it tempts the Dodgers to bring him back — via either a one-year, $21 million qualifying offer, or a new contract entirely — remains to be seen.
Entering this series, Buehler said he hadn’t thought much about his looming free agency, saying that while it “sucks” he struggled so much in his contract year, simply “not being very good sucks more.”
The idea of this being his last run with the Dodgers hadn’t crossed his mind much either, he insisted, keeping such sentimental subplots out of mind as he prepared for Game 3.
“If it is [my last start as a Dodger],” he said, “it’s certainly going to be me trying to win a ballgame in the World Series, more than anything sad or kind of weird in that way.”
Buehler knows this winter won’t be like he once imagined, back when the two-time All-Star seemed so poised to cash in on the open market, he reportedly turned down a lucrative contract extension offer from the Dodgers before the 2021 season.
“Once I had my second surgery, I don’t think I was under any illusion that I was gonna go sign a $350 million contract to be a starting pitcher for the next 10 years,” Buehler said last week. “So, I think I’m very happy to be a Los Angeles Dodger, and I would love to stay here for as long as they’ll have me. But I think in the past couple months, I’ve kind of built my confidence up a little bit to the point that there’ll be some teams that would want me. I feel like a major league starting pitcher, whether it’s here or elsewhere.”
On Monday night, Buehler only further solidified that belief — giving himself either a fitting ending to his Dodgers tenure, or another reason for the club to ensure he doesn’t leave Los Angeles this offseason.
“There’s no better way to go out if I do, or to come back,” he said, “than after hopefully a World Series.”
