Dodgers: Walker Buehler foolish mistake led to Buster Posey home run

The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants nearly began their first ever (post-1951) playoff series with the exact same first-inning sequence on each side.

LA began things with a Mookie Betts single, only for the three men after him to be swiftly retired by sinker-ball specialist Logan Webb.

In the bottom half of the inning, Tommy La Stella led off with a walk, placing Walker Buehler in the exact same predicament.

And he nearly worked out of it, too. Unfortunately, he got a little too confident in his own track record, and suffered a certain type of indignity for the first time ever.

Everybody wants to be a hero, sure. We understand the impulse. But with a 3-0 count to Buster Posey and an empty base, it might be wise to wave the white flag and flip the home-plate umpire a hand signal.

Nope. Buehler challenged him, and Posey put a Hall of Fame swing on the ball, rifling it well over the high right-field wall for a 2-0 lead that never should’ve happened.

Dodgers ace Walker Buehler shouldn’t have challenged Buster Posey.

With a 3-0 count in your hip pocket, there is no good reason to go for the auto-strike here, especially not with a fastball right in Posey’s swing path, served up for him to effortlessly flip out onto the docks in right field.

In a series between two 107-win behemoths (we can say that now that the Wild Card Game has wrapped), the margin for error is minuscule. There is no reason for a pitcher to get cute — even a pitcher with this much talent. Don’t give the hitter one second’s worth of a break; giving him first base is preferable with LaMonte Wade Jr. following behind.

Of course, we all know why Buehler continued to challenge Posey. He’d never given up a 3-0 home run in his baseball life, and thought he was invincible.

Buehler’s workload has been intense in 2021 following the shortened 2020, and it showed down the stretch, as his count ballooned to 207.2 innings pitched. His September ERA? 4.83.

Perhaps there’s a little less zip on the fastball these days.

That flawless streak was never going to last forever, but at the very least, you don’t tempt fate against Posey at home.

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