NEW YORK — It had been 1,109 days since Walker Buehler looked this good.
In Game 3 of the NLCS on Wednesday, the Dodgers’ starter conjured 18 swing-and-misses from Mets hitters in just four innings of work, his highest raw total in a single outing since his final start of 2021. More importantly, neither he nor the Los Angeles bullpen surrendered a run. The Dodgers, buoyed by a trio of home runs, including a supersonic blast from Shohei Ohtani, won in a rout, 8-0.
For Buehler, it was a sparkling return to form on a chilly evening in the Big Apple.
Once the impenetrable ace of a perennial contender, Buehler is a different pitcher now. Arm injuries robbed him of the better part of three seasons and chipped away at his once unshakable confidence. He endured a stop-start 2024 during which he spent a month away from the team to rehabilitate a bad hip at a private training facility.
Buehler steadied the ship somewhat down the stretch run, but his selection as Los Angeles’ Game 3 playoff starter had as much to do with the team’s infirmary of pitchers as any obvious rebound from the righty. In his first postseason start last week against San Diego in the NLDS, he surrendered six runs in an L.A. loss. With the NLCS tied at one heading into a raucous Citi Field on Wednesday, the Dodgers needed their beleaguered former ace to turn back the clock.
And Buehler delivered.
“I don’t trust anyone more than Walker,” longtime Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes told Yahoo Sports after the game. “His ability to, you know, be alive in those moments. A lot of people can’t. Since I’ve been here, he’s done a lot of big games for us. And no matter what happens early in the season or how he’s been feeling, I trust that he’s gonna go out there and compete.”
The competing came early in Game 3. In the bottom of the second, the Mets loaded the bases with one out behind two walks and an infield single. Gifted a pair of runs in the top half of the frame, Buehler was playing with fire, giving the hosts an opening for a counterpunch. But the brash right-hander bore down, striking out Francisco Álvarez and Francisco Lindor to end the threat.
His strikeout pitch to Lindor — a full-count knuckle-curveball that ducked beneath a monstrous hack from the Mets’ superstar shortstop — was vintage Buehler. He bounced off the mound in a cloud of braggadocio, yelling to himself and nobody and everyone at the same time.
Buehler has always straddled that fine line between confidence and…