Walker Buhler saved his best for what he hopes will be his final minor league rehab start on Tuesday night, the Dodgers right-hander giving up one earned run and seven hits in five innings and striking out five with no walks for triple-A Oklahoma City against Salt Lake.
Buehler, in the final stages of recovering from a second Tommy John surgerythrew 75 pitches, 54 for strikes, and threw first-pitch strikes to 16 of the 21 batters he faced at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City.
His fastball sat between 92-94 mph and topped out at 94.6 mph. He mixed his heater with a curveball, a cut fastball, a slider and a changeup.
Buehler used his knuckle curve to finish off four of his five strikeouts, including a pair of 77 mph doubles in the fifth inning to get Jordyn Adams swinging to complete a nine-pitch at-bat and Charles Leblanc trying to end the inning.
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Six of Salt Lake’s hits were singles, and the Bees scored their only run against Buehler in the fourth when Willie Calhoun led off with a single and Buehler delivered a two-hit curveball to Chad Wallach, who hit a double, RBI double for the gap in left-center field.
Buehler’s sixth rehab start came on the heels of two shaky starts in which he gave up two earned runs and four hits, struck out three and walked four in 2 ⅔ innings against Sacramento on April 18, and gave up three earned runs and seven hits, struck out five and walked two in Albuquerque last Wednesday.
Buehler, who last pitched for the Dodgers on June 10, 2022, didn’t look dominant on Tuesday night, but his overall command, especially on the breaking ball, was much more accurate than in his previous starts, and he needed just five pitches to complete the third inning.
Buehler, 29, was the team’s ace during his final full season in 2021, when he went 16-4 with a major league-best 2.47 ERA in 33 starts, striking out 212 and walking 52 in 207 ⅔ innings, and he thrived in October, going 3-3 with a 2.94 ERA in 15 playoff appearances, striking out 101 and walking 31 in 79 ⅔ innings.
Asked Monday in Phoenix if this would be Buehler’s last rehab start, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said: “We’ll see how it goes. I don’t want to put extra expectations on Walker. Go out there, pitch well, come out of this healthy and then we’ll take the next step.”
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Tuesday night went very well for Buehler, whose next step will likely be a return to the Dodgers’ rotation during next week’s series against the Miami Marlins.
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This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.
