Los Angeles Dodgers starter Walker Buehler posted the first shutout game of his career and was pretty adamant about staying on the pitch against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday night. Walking past manager Dave Roberts after eight innings, he shouted “I’m not coming out of this game!’’
The pitcher was keen on not having a repeat of the controversial scene that saw Roberts pull Clayton Kershaw out after he had thrown a perfect seven innings against the Minnesota Twins.
While Buehler was not pitching a perfect game and had given up two singles, there was an opportunity for him to grab the first shutout of his career.
“I would have been really upset,” he said. “I think it’s kind of hard not to have that emotion.”
He would still be on the mound when Christian Walker’s line drive was caught by center fielder Cody Bellinger for the final out. The Kentucky native cracked a huge grin before walking to catcher Will Smith and hugging him, to the delight of the Chase Field crowd.
This first career shutout came in the 98th start of the 27-year-old’s metier, a game in which he gave up three hits and struck out 10 in 108 pitches.
“That was ol’ Walker right there,” Dodgers shortstop Trea Turner declared. “He was unbelievable.’’
Buehler’s performance fired the Dodgers to a 4-0 victory following a series sweep against the Cincinnati Reds and a 3-1 showing versus the Atlanta Braves. This is a pretty good period for Dodgers fans and folks who bet on them, and bookmakers are likely to see even more activity given this positive stretch. As for their previous opponents, Caesars Ohio has odds on all Cincinnati Reds games while bettors could snag some great odds on the Braves at DraftKings.
Buehler, who hadn’t pitched longer than 5/23 innings in his first three starts, was incredible on the night and was still throwing at 96 mph in the ninth inning. He retired 15 consecutive batters until David Peralta got a two-out single in said inning, and no baserunner was allowed to go past second base.
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Apart from being the first shutout of the season, it was also the first complete game on the back of what was a shortened spring training, and Roberts was not going to take Buehler off after doing so with Kershaw, who had thrown a perfect game in 80 pitches.
The manager did have a 110-pitch limit on Buehler but he would have kept him on for the ninth whether or not he had said anything, having already thrown 98.
“I know it’s something he always wanted,” Roberts noted. “He deserved it. He earned it. It was fun to watch him pitch tonight.”
The player, who will have an extra day of rest, showed no signs of slowing down or fatigue.
“I think there have been outings where you might have seen more velocity or it looks or is perceived as more dominant,” Roberts added. “But I thought tonight was as well-pitched of a game as he’s pitched in the big leagues. I really believe that.”
Roberts revealed he would have pulled Buehler if he had given up one more hit or base runner and replaced him with Craig Kimbrel no matter what the situation was.
“I was very relieved,” he said with a laugh. “The stars aligned right there.”
He also laughed when someone jokingly asked if Buehler would still be in the game if he had thrown perfectly after seven innings. But it’s worth noting that the circumstances between Kershaw’s and Buehler’s games were different. The former was coming off an injury that had left him out for several weeks while the latter had trained all winter and was pitching before the start of the year.
“Hey, he was built up,” Roberts pointed out. “They’re not all created equal.”
“I was more pleased with just kind of getting back on track and getting my mechanics where I want them,” Buehler said. “You’ve seen how protected we are here, and I think that’s a good thing and the smart thing,” Buehler said. “But I would have been really upset.”
After getting his first shutout, as well as showing Roberts he could be left in longer, there might be a push to close in on Kershaw, who has 15 career shutouts.
“Kersh has kind of dominated and pushed and been really, really good in a lot of innings,” Buehler remarked. “I don’t know if it’s a chasing him thing. It’s just a standard of what I want to be able to do.”
