Dodgers: Walker Buehler working out of stretch didn’t work Sunday

We have great news for all Los Angeles Dodgers fans, so you’re going to want to listen up: the MLB season does not start on March 7.

That being said, Walker Buehler’s attempts to perfect every aspect of his mechanics on Sunday didn’t exactly go according to plan.

The Dodgers’ erstwhile ace’s second start of the spring didn’t feature a lot of the full windup in the first inning, with the righty opting instead to work mostly out of the stretch in a tuneup effort against the Texas Rangers.

He probably would’ve been more effective working out of a different ballpark.

The video tape told the full story, but witnesses reported Buehler allowing arguably the hardest contact surrendered by any Dodger so far this preseason.

It opened with a bang on a Joey Gallo blast on an 0-2 fastball, but even the outs were too loud for comfort.

The good news? We assure you this doesn’t count, and Buehler will go to bed tonight caring more about getting things right than the ghastly stat line.

The bad news? Well, it’s never fun to go down and go down hard, now is it?

Walker Buehler struggled for the Dodgers on Sunday.

Buehler has three weeks to get in a rhythm, of course, and all that’s really left to be decided is whether he’ll start on Opening Day or in the season’s second game. We suspect Dave Roberts would like to give Clayton Kershaw the honor of opening the year on the mound and soaking in the World Series adulation, considering all he’s been through, but we can’t be too sure.

We invite you to ignore for a few minutes, if you will, the Buehler struggles, and focus instead on something positive that occurred on the back fields Sunday.

Dustin May rolled out to the mound to work a B Game, but he brought a former MVP to back him up in center field.

Not a bad caddy to have, huh?

Ideally, Cody Bellinger will be ready for regular work in the coming days.

We’re not interested in rushing the 25-year-old back into service ahead of schedule, but we’d also rather look at grainy behind-the-fence photos of a faraway Bellinger than think about Buehler’s struggles. Just us?

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