NEW YORK — Sometimes, one pitch in the second inning can save a baseball game. Sometimes, it can salvage an entire season for a player.
In the bottom of the second of Game 3 of the National League Championship Series on Wednesday night, Walker Buehler faced Francisco Lindor, bases loaded, two outs, Buehler's Los Angeles Dodgers leading Lindor's New York Mets 2-0.
It's been a trying season for Buehler, the one-time postseason star who returned after missing most of 2022 and all of 2023 following the second Tommy John surgery of his career.
He made 16 starts in the regular season — and won once, posting a 5.38 ERA. This is a pitcher who won 16 games in 2021 with a 2.47 ERA, a pitcher who threw seven scoreless innings in a World Series game as a rookie, who allowed three runs over a 21-inning stretch in the 2020 postseason when the Dodgers won it all.