Max Muncy decided to keep it PG.
The Los Angeles Dodgers decided to push Walker Buehler’s NLCS start back, opting to go with a bullpen game in Game 2 against the New York Mets instead. This seemed to light a fire underneath Buehler. Even though it took him 90 pitches to get through four innings, Buehler still set the tone in what ended up being a dominant 8-0 win for the Dodgers.
Given how much Buehler has struggled throughout the 2024 campaign, it was not quite clear what version of the 30-year-old starter the Dodgers were going to get. He may not have been the dominant version of yore, but he got outs when it mattered — and shut out the Mets in the process. And Max Muncy knows that there’s a twinkle in Buehler’s eye that showed that his confidence level is trending up when it matters the most.
In fact, Muncy sees that a certain version of Buehler, which was given an NSFW nickname by the Dodgers faithful in social media, might be back, although he did not want to say it out loud on national television to keep it family friendly.
“There’s a phrase for what he was tonight, but I won’t say it. I don’t want to get in trouble,” Muncy told Tom Verducci of FOX Sports 1 in his postgame interview.
Dodgers fans know that Muncy is pertaining to, and indeed, that phrase is not safe for national television as well as online publication. What is safe to say, however, is that the phrase Muncy is alluding to is related to the size of a certain body part that Buehler showed he’s abundant in with the way he performed in LA’s Game 3 win over the Mets.
Buehler did run into some rough moments in Game 3, but he managed to get the Dodgers through unscathed, and he deserves all the plaudits he can get.
“He had a couple of rough at-bats there, but he got the out. He showed the emotion, he showed he was Walker. That was what I expected. He’s not gonna back down in the moment. If anything, it’s gonna make him tougher and better, and we definitely saw it tonight,” Muncy added.
Walker Buehler gets into a groove for the Dodgers at the best possible time
There was plenty of uncertainty surrounding Walker Buehler and just how productive he can be coming off the second Tommy John surgery of his career. But Buehler has remained healthy amid the Dodgers’ pitching injury problems, and he showed in Game 3 of the NLCS that he can still deliver when it matters the most.
Max Muncy knows that Buehler has another gear to reach, especially in the playoffs, and the Mets got a firsthand taste of what it means to face the 30-year-old starter in the postseason.
“Walker is a different animal in the postseason. I don’t care what his regular-season numbers are, especially this year coming off a second Tommy John,” Muncy said in the locker room following the game, via SportsNet LA. “We all knew, once we got into this setting, he was gonna be Walker Buehler and he was definitely that tonight.”
