Walker Buehler kindly censors his own NSFW reaction to long-awaited Dodgers return

Aside from Kiké Hernández, no Dodgers player does social media quite as well as Walker Buehler. He doesn't tweet everyday, but when he does, it's usually either a banger or a direct response to his own performances ... or kind of a combination of the two.

When Shohei Ohtani signed with the Dodgers, he tweeted, "So his dog was named Dodger after all?" He also responded directly to some of his less-than-stellar outings during his rehab assignment and addressed worries about his finger after taking a line drive to the hand in the minors. He's plugged in.

After his first rehab start, he dropped a profanity-laden (but self-censored, at least!) tweet that he's since deleted, acknowledging that his performance was rough by celebrating that he was throwing competitively again.

It seemed like he learned his lesson when he took to Twitter to note his first start back in the major leagues on Monday night, less profanity-filled but still self-censored: "For better or for worst GD it was good to be back!"

Walker Buehler celebrated his first Dodgers start in almost two years with an almost profanity-free commemorative tweet

Before having to undergo his second Tommy John surgery, Buehler's last appearance for the Dodgers was on June 10, 2022 — one year, 11 months, and 21 days before his start on Monday night against the Marlins. It was imperfect; he pitched four innings and gave up six hits and three earned runs, including a homer, while striking out four.

However, the Dodgers lineup was there to back him up. They put six runs on the board, all driven in on home runs for Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, James Outman, and Teoscar Hernández.

After the game, Dave Roberts told reporters that Buehler's next start would be on Sunday, May 12 against the Padres, giving him a full five days of rest between outings. It's likely he'll be kept to 4-5 innings again during that start, but the Padres lineup is sure to give him even more of a battle than the Marlins did.

But, long road back to the show considered, it's just nice to have Buehler back on the bump, especially to take a few innings off the Dodgers bullpen's hands, which is now even further depleted thanks to an IL stint for Joe Kelly, announced as the corresponding roster move to make space for Buehler's reactivation.