While the Los Angeles Dodgers are in the midst of their first road trip of the season, Walker Buehler is poised to continue his rehab assignment with Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Buehler’s second start for the OKC Baseball Club is scheduled for Saturday, when they host the Albuquerque Isotopes (Colorado Rockies) affiliate.
Buehler threw 54 pitches over 3.1 innings in his first outing. He retired the first seven batters faced before issuing a one-out walk in the third. A second walk in the inning was followed by allowing a two-out base hit that scored both runners, though only one was earned.
Buehler then up a solo home run and one-out base hit in the fourth inning prior to being replaced by Gus Varland. He then returned to Los Angeles to join the Dodgers on their homestand.
“He feels good. He wasn’t happy about the homer in the last inning but he feels good,” manager Dave Roberts said earlier this week.
“That was my first question to him, ‘After your outing, how did you recover and feel?’ He says he feels great. Just the normal soreness. I saw him out there playing catch [Tuesday], so that’s a good thing.”
Buehler’s fastball velocity topped out at 95.7 mph and averaged 94.2 mph in his first rehab start.
The game was Buehler’s first since he started for the Dodgers at Oracle Park on June 10, 2022.
When is Walker Buehler returning?
Prior to Buehler beginning his rehab assignment, Roberts said the expectation was the right-hander would make around a handful of starts.
“It’s about building up and fine-tuning all of his pitch mix, so once he gets here, he can go six innings, he can recover well and he feels like he’s equipped to go out there and consistently get Major League hitters out,” Roberts explained.
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