Dodgers 4, Reds 0: Walker Buehler returns to dominance for first win in almost 2 years

Chad Moriyama 05/18/2024 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

After evening the series against the Reds with a win last night, the Dodgers seemed to be locked into a potential pitchers’ duel early. Thankfully, it was the opposing side that faltered first and the Dodgers never had to look back behind a vintage Walker Buehler performance. It was 4-0 victory in the end and his first win in almost two years since his last was on May 24, 2022.

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After a couple of starts where the stuff looked ready but the command didn’t, Buehler course corrected today by getting ahead of batters early and often, leading to easily his best start of the year and looking very much like a top of the rotation guy.

He started off hot, retiring the first eight batters he faced before giving up a single in the 3rd, though there were no problems there as he then got the next five in a row. It certainly looked like it would be six on a Jake Fraley flyball to left-center, but Andy Pages and Miguel Vargas collided in the outfield, so the ball got past them for a triple.

Things looked like they might got south at that point, but Buehler locked in and got a pop-up and a groundout to keep the shutout intact through the 5th. He came right back in the 6th, working around a one-out single with back-to-back strikeouts to end his outing.

Impressive performance: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K, 78 Pitches.

Oh right, the other side of things.

Well, the offense didn’t get off to the best start against Graham Ashcraft. After going down in order in the 1st and 2nd, they did get a RISP in the 3rd after a walk and wild pitch, but that was promptly stranded by three straight outs.

Thankfully, they finally broke through in the 4th. Two reached with one out thanks to Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernandez walks, and it was Pages who took advantage by singling to center. That drove in Freeman, and both Teoscar and Pages advanced a bag on the throw. That proved important when Gavin Lux dribbled the first pitch in front of the plate, which led to an out but also another run to make it 2-0.

They’d then make it back-to-back innings with scoring, as Miguel Rojas doubled and Freddie drove him in with a patented single for a 3-0 advantage.

The pen entered for the Reds after 5, and they limited the Dodgers to just a single in the 6th and 7th, but the 8th started with a Freeman double, and an insurance run scored on a Teoscar check swing single to push the lead to 4-0.

Relieving Buehler was the suddenly dominant Michael Grove, who took just 11 pitches to get a clean frame.

Daniel Hudson got the 8th, putting aside his brief stretch of struggles by making today his fourth appearance in a row without a run. He got the side in order, getting the first two on four pitches and then winning an 11-pitch battle to end the frame.

Closing up shop was J.P. Feyereisen, who is on quite a run of his own, and got the side on just 13 pitches to close things out.

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31-17, a mere 105-win pace.

The finale of the four-game series will be an afternoon contest at 10:10 AM HT/1:10 PM PT/4:10 PM ET. The pitching matchup is still undecided as the Dodgers could go with a true pen game, give Elieser Hernandez another start, or call up Landon Knack, but either way it’ll be Hunter Greene for the Reds.

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