The Walker Buehler who retired 11 of 12 batters with six strikeouts from the second through fifth innings Saturday night could play in a postseason rotation for the Dodgers.
The Buehler who gave up three runs and three hits, walked one batter and hit another while throwing 42 pitches in the first two choppy innings? Not so much.
The start-to-start consistency and the extended stretches of dominance that made Buehler the team’s ace from 2019 to 2021 continued to elude the right-hander in a 6-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies before a sold-out crowd of 52,267 in Chavez Ravine, further muddling the team’s playoff pitching picture.
Buehler, who missed the first five weeks of the season recovering from his second Tommy John surgery and two months from mid-June to mid-August because of a left-hip injury, gave up four earned runs and five hits in 5⅓ innings, striking out nine and walking one, to fall to 1-6 with a 5.63 earned-run average in 13 starts.
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Saturday night’s uneven performance somewhat negated the progress Buehler made in his previous start, when he battled through early command issues in a six-inning, two-run (one earned), five-strikeout effort in a 9-2 win at Atlanta on Sept. 15.
“I’ve had some rough patches where I’ve really questioned if I have the stuff to compete,” Buehler said. “Tonight, I felt like I could compete, and I just didn’t make the big pitches in the big spots, or I kind of made little mistakes in the big spots, and that’s frustrating. … There were some encouraging things about it, but obviously not good enough at this point of the year, when we’re trying to keep the lead in the division.”
The loss reduced the Dodgers’ National League West lead to three games over San Diego and five over Arizona and kept their magic number to clinch the division at five with seven games left, three against the Padres at home this week.
Buehler put the Dodgers in an early hole, continuing his pattern of early-inning struggles followed by three or four innings of effectiveness.
“He’s putting himself in some stress in the first inning,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We have to figure out a way to get that clean first inning because it does seem like the third and fourth and fifth innings, he finds his stride.”
Roberts actually saw more reasons for optimism than concern, noting the 14 swinging strikes Buehler induced, five with his fastball and four with his curve.
With injuries ravaging the rotation, Roberts may have no choice but to lean on Buehler in October, but the manager doesn’t seem to have any reservations about handing Buehler the ball for a playoff start.
“This is the most confident I’ve been in Walker this year,” Roberts said. “I believe that it was in there, but obviously he needs to have some success to believe that as well. I do think getting nine strikeouts and commanding the baseball the way that he is, I feel very confident of him starting a playoff game for us.”
Buehler gave up one run in a 27-pitch first inning that included Charlie Blackmon’s leadoff double, Ezequiel Tovar’s walk and Michael Toglia’s RBI fielder’s choice. Buehler minimized damage by striking out Brendan Rodgers and Sam Hilliard swinging at 92-mph cut fastballs with runners on second and third.
The Rockies pushed the lead to 3-0 in the second when Nolan Jones reached on an infield single, Jacob Stallings was hit by a pitch and Tovar laced a two-out, two-run double into the left-field corner.
The Dodgers cut the deficit to 3-2 in the third when Shohei Ohtani walked and Mookie Betts drove a first-pitch, 93-mph sinker from right-hander Cal Quantrill into the left-center pavilion for his 18th homer.
Max Muncy walked with one out in the fourth, Gavin Lux singled to right, and rookie catcher Hunter Feduccia lined a single to right for his first RBI and a 3-3 tie.
Buehler recovered from his rocky start to retire nine straight batters before hanging a first-pitch, 77-mph curve to Ryan McMahon, who drove a two-out homer — his 20th of the season — into the left-center seats for a 4-3 Colorado lead in the fifth.
“We tie the game up, and then I give up the homer — that was really deflating,” Buehler said. “The [amount of swing-and-miss] was encouraging, but at the end of the day, none of that really matters if they keep putting up numbers.”
The Dodgers threatened in the fifth, loading the bases with two outs, but Rockies left-hander Luis Peralta replaced Quantrill and struck out the left-handed-hitting Lux with a 97-mph fastball to end the inning.
The Rockies scored two big insurance runs off Daniel Hudson in the ninth, Jake Cave blooping a one-out double to right and Blackmon lining a two-run homer to right on a 95-mph, 0-and-2 fastball for a 6-3 lead.
The Dodgers positioned themselves for a dramatic comeback win when they loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth — with Ohtani stealing his 53rd base — but Rockies right-hander Seth Halvorsen blew a 100-mph fastball by Muncy for a game-ending strikeout.
While Buehler struggled to solidify a spot in the playoff rotation, a long-shot option may have emerged Saturday night in Salt Lake City, where Tony Gonsolin threw 45 pitches over three hitless innings with six strikeouts and one walk in his third rehabilitation start for triple-A Oklahoma City.
Gonsolin is one year removed from Tommy John surgery, but Roberts said before Saturday’s game that the 30-year-old right-hander and 2022 All-Star could emerge as a candidate for the postseason rotation or bullpen.
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“He’s been good, so we’ve just got to keep building him up,” Roberts said. “If this one goes well, then I think a conversation about him joining us at some point is more tangible.”
Gonsolin would have to make at least one more start, for the Dodgers or Oklahoma City, and throw 60 pitches over four innings before being considered for a rotation spot. But he does have bullpen experience, having made eight relief appearances from 2019 to 2021.
“The great thing about Tony is that he’s done both, and I think they both have their own value,” Roberts said. “No. 1 is to get him right, get him built up, and then we’ll kind of assess where our staff is at, in its totality.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.