Walker Buehler returned to legendary postseason Dodgers presence in Game 3 vs Yankees

The Dodgers have desperately needed Walker Buehler to be good all season. He's a first-round draft pick, a two-time Cy Young candidate and All-Star, and he'd done so much good work for the Dodgers in his first six seasons that he looked like he could be making himself into a mainstay of LA's rotation for the rest of his career.

The 2024 season hasn't been kind to him, though. There was the late start to the year, almost two years after his second Tommy John surgery. Then there was the poor performance and a second IL stint with a hip issue. All of that was threatening to ruin his legacy as a Dodger, and during a walk year no less.

He's slotted in as the No. 3 in the rotation throughout the postseason and had a truly awful start against the Padres in the NLDS before cleaning up his act in the LCS against the Mets. That guy — the guy who pitched four almost-perfect innings on Oct. 16 — was the guy the Dodgers needed to see in Game 3 of the World Series.

There was a lot of reason to believe that Buehler wouldn't rise to the occasion, but he seemed to take that as a challenge. He pitched five innings against the Yankees and almost completely blanked them, giving up just two hits and one walk while striking out five.

Walker Buehler returned to top form during Dodgers-Yankees World Series Game 3

Buehler threw just 76 pitches through those five innings, and the Yankees had to wait to get their first hit until the bottom of the fourth, with a one-out double by Giancarlo Stanton that amounted to nothing when the Yankees decided to try to send him from second to home on an Anthony Volpe single, only for him to be gunned down easily on a nice throw by Teoscar Hernández.

Dave Roberts opted to pull him and put in Brusdar Graterol after the fifth, weaponizing the strength of the Dodger bullpen, but Buehler certainly looked like he could've gone for one more.

This outing reminded Dodgers fans what Buehler was capable of. He was a postseason stalwart for the Dodgers from 2018-2021 before injuries derailed his last few years. But his outing Monday night channeled the Buehler of years past and may have erased his poor regular season showing in the eyes of offseason suitors. Maybe even the Dodgers, too.