With one pitch, Walker Buehler shows his evolution as Dodgers take NLCS Game 3

NEW YORK — This version of Walker Buehler arrived in October, in the cauldron of Citi Field, with the bases loaded and the night teetering on disaster. These are the moments Buehler cherishes so tightly, the ones he longed for in his months of self-rediscovery, the ones that have put him back in this spot again.

Amid the worst season of his career, he put it simply: His track record in big games is “kind of the only thing I care about.”

Buehler has done so by bullying his opposition. His fastball hummed in the triple-digits and missed bats, a certifiable weapon that extracted him from bases-loaded jams of years past and imposed his will on opposing lineups. Backed into a corner, he didn’t tap dance out of it. He rammed his way through it.

So yes, Buehler acknowledged Thursday night, the old version of himself would have thrown Francisco Lindor a fastball in the second inning, with the bases loaded, a full count, two outs and a slim early advantage.

This version of Buehler threw a curveball, one that broke over the plate and past Lindor’s bat to extinguish the biggest threat of the night, finishing off one of four scoreless innings in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 8-0 romp over the New York Mets in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series.

“That,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “was the pitch of the game.”

A second Tommy John surgery has made much of the previous version of Buehler feel like an old memory. His 5.38 ERA during the regular season, with Buehler on the verge of finally hitting free agency, felt like a cruel twist. And it was the flaws within this current version of Buehler — lacking the ability to generate swing-and-miss or consistently find his command — that allowed his first start this postseason to spiral so far out of control last week against the San Diego Padres, with a six-run second inning sullying his final line in a Dodgers loss.

Trouble appeared to find Buehler again in the second inning on Wednesday night. J.D. Martinez drew a one-out walk. Jose Iglesias hit a sharp grounder that Tommy Edman couldn’t handle for an infield single. Another walk to Tyrone Taylor loaded the bases with one out. And while Buehler froze Francisco Alvarez with a two-strike fastball that caught the outer half of the plate, the threat wasn’t over when the top of the lineup rolled over a second time.

Lindor did not offer at the first two-strike breaking ball Buehler tried. When Buehler went fastball, Lindor fouled the first one off at the top of the zone. He watched another sail well above the zone to bring the count full.

Buehler did not cave into old habits. Roberts, standing from the dugout, suspected a curveball might be able to get Lindor out. Will Smith, behind the plate, thought the same.

“Just go with what was working,” Smith said. Buehler’s curveball had some of its best movement all season.

Buehler did not shake. The man who once fired five consecutive two-strike fastballs to Eddie Rosario in a postseason game did not attempt to overpower New York’s superstar with velocity. Instead, Buehler threw another two-strike breaking ball, one that broke over the heart of the plate.

“I don’t think anyone over there would have expected Walker to throw that pitch in that situation and that’s why Walker did it,” Max Muncy said.

Lindor waved through it, and another chapter in Buehler’s October history was written. And a lesson officially learned.

“That with 3-2 and the bases loaded, I have to throw a curveball now instead of a heater,” Buehler said.

The Dodgers are now two wins from returning to the World Series.

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The turnaround came amid the worst stretch of Buehler’s career. His confidence plummeted over the summer, as he landed back on the injured list with an unsightly 5.84 ERA and no real traction in sight. He ducked away for weeks to a private facility in Florida, only to get throttled again upon his return.

“One of my biggest strengths for a long time was my confidence, I guess,” Buehler said. “At times this year that’s kind of wavered somewhat.”

Then came a bullpen session in St. Louis in August. Buehler’s mechanics remained something of a moving target to lock in. His command was inconsistent. His stuff wasn’t as crisp. Each start marked a point of self-reflection.

“I think he was in the right spot in the season and right headspace to kind of handle some of the suggestions,” assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness said.

That afternoon, Buehler tried an old mental cue with his lower half, emphasizing how he generated force coming down the slope of the mound. That helped some.

Jack Flaherty, Buehler’s teammate of only a few weeks at that point, had a more blunt suggestion while watching the bullpen session.

“I just talked a lot of s— to him and told him to figure it out,” Flaherty recalled. “Walker’s a stud on his own. … He’s always been a stud and was going to figure it out.”

The bullpen session hardly corrected all of Buehler’s issues. He had a 4.63 ERA over his last seven regular-season starts. He pitched his way onto the Dodgers’ postseason roster largely by default, with enough slivers of improvement for Los Angeles to figure it could get more out of him in October.

“Not that I’ve been setting the world on fire since then,” Buehler said. “But at least my body feels like it’s in the right position a lot of the time and kind of have an idea where the ball’s headed.”

Wednesday night, he rewarded the Dodgers’ patience. He resembled the pitcher the team has entrusted to start a Game 163, a pennant clincher, this year’s division clincher, Game 6 of the 2020 NLCS and Game 3 of the 2018 World Series .

“Obviously he’s sort of had to reinvent himself,” Roberts said. “It’s easy to ride when the wind’s at your back. That’s when he’s going and riding really well.

“But when there’s some adversity, you get kicked in the teeth and you lose confidence, to then reset, come back and still stick it out, that’s something, for me, that I don’t think he’s ever had to do — outside of having a surgery. So that’s something for me that speaks to his character. … You look at kind of in June or July, I don’t think anyone could have seen him in this position right now. So it’s a credit to Walker.”

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Four, traffic-filled innings did not resurrect a season or recraft a market for the 30-year-old right-hander on the cusp of free agency. But each successive out reaffirmed the only thing Buehler says he cares about.

“There’s never a moment that gets too big for him,” Muncy said. “There’s never a situation that gets too big for him. He’s able to control everything. He was Walker Buehler tonight.”

“There’s just something that brings it out of him,” Gavin Lux said. “I think he’s a better pitcher now than he was before. Just seeing how he’s mixing pitches and just his pitch usage and how it has changed, it’s been fun to watch him figure it out.”

“There are certain players that like the spotlight, that like playing in October,” Kiké Hernández said. “And those guys, I mean, I can attest to that. It doesn’t matter what the regular season looks like. When this comes, we start over. We start at zero and we do it one game at a time. … And this guy has proven year after year that when there’s a big game and the Dodgers need a win, he’s the right guy to be on the mound.”

With one pitch, he didn’t completely reinvent himself. But he’s shown enough of an ability to change to make nights like this special.

“There’s the stats and free agency and all this s—, but I want 25 guys in the locker room that believe I give us a really good chance to win,” Buehler said. “If I’ve created that in our locker room somehow, that’s probably what I’ll be the most proud of when I’m done.”

(Photo of Walker Buehler: Wendell Cruz / Imagn Images)