Walker Buehler Giving Himself Time To Return To Form

The Los Angeles Dodgers had their streak of five consecutive series wins snapped with a 4-0 loss to the San Diego Padres on Sunday. Walker Buehler struggled in his second start since rejoining the team after a lengthy rehab assignment.

The right-hander lasted just 3.1 innings and exited with the bases loaded in the fourth inning. He allowed three runs on five hits — including back-to-back home runs in the first — while collecting two strikeouts.

Buehler acknowledged it will take some time before he potentially returns to his pre-surgery form, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:

“I think there’s a timeline before I kind of jump off a bridge kind of deal,” Buehler said of his own expectations. “Both starts have obviously some negative things as far as performance, but some encouraging things for me as far as the backside of it.

“It’s going to take me a minute. I don’t think you can re-create everything that goes with being a starting pitcher in the major leagues and I want to get deep into games and set us up to win and I didn’t do that today. But I think in this rehab thing, I kind of have to look at the good things. I threw some good pitches and got into some bad counts and good hitters put good swings on it, but I think I’m a little more encouraged today than I was in the last one.”

Buehler estimated that he will need three or four more starts to work on things and hopefully build some momentum:

“I think it’ll be before 10 starts that I’ll start getting really angry at myself if it keeps going like this,” he said. “But I think the next three or four starts, still trying to figure it out and put some things together.

“I want to stay in the rotation. We have a lot of really talented people here. So I’m trying to give myself a little grace period to not freak out. And in saying that, I’m not freaked out. I’m actually pretty encouraged by a lot of the things I’ve done. … But yeah, a few more starts that I’m kind of giving myself a little bit of grace. And then after that, that kind of ‘Happy to be here’ thing will go away.”

Buehler is the ultimate competitor and always sets the highest standards for himself, but knows he will need to be patient in order to get back to pitching at an elite level.

Buehler missed nearly two years after undergoing a second Tommy John surgery and flexor tendon repair before returning to a Major League mound last week against the Miami Marlins.

In that start, the 29-year-old allowed three runs on six hits and collected four strikeouts over four innings of work. Through two starts this season, Buehler is 0-1 with a 7.36 ERA, 8.45 FIP and 1.77 WHIP in 7.1 innings pitched.

Walker Buehler was surprised by velocity in 2024 debut

Buehler’s fastball velocity topped out at 97.6 mph in his 2024 debut, which he attributed to his adrenaline taking over. “I didn’t think there was 97 or 98, but I think that’s the adrenaline of being back,” Buehler said.

“Normally, I try to temper that. And I’ve been somewhat concerned about the velocity, so we kind of tried to ride it and see what’s in there.

“The next one, I’ll probably feel the same and be able to temper it a little bit knowing that it’s in there. I’ll probably have higher expectations of myself next outing. I feel pretty good coming out of it. We’ll see how it goes.”