Buehler Dominates Dodgers
Padres Defeat Dodgers 7-1 as Walker Buehler Dominates Former Team in Series Opener
Walker Buehler made his return to Petco Park against his old team count. The former Dodgers ace held Los Angeles to one run on three hits over 5⅓ innings, powering the San Diego Padres to a 7-1 win on Friday night, per CBS Sports.
It was the first of seven meetings between the two rivals in a 10-day span. The Padres have now won four straight. Despite still trailing Los Angeles by eight games in the NL West, San Diego is building momentum at exactly the right time, according to MLB.com.
Buehler Shuts Down the Team That Let Him Go
Buehler threw 74 pitches, struck out five, and walked three. The Dodgers managed just three hits against him. The only damage came in the second inning, when Mookie Betts hit a solo home run on the very first pitch Buehler threw to him, per CBS Sports.
Buehler's numbers this season are hard to ignore. In 16 starts for San Diego, he carries a 3.81 ERA over 78 innings. He signed a one-year, $1.5 million "prove-it" deal with the Padres in February after a rough 2025 split between Boston and Philadelphia, where he posted a 5.45 ERA, according to FanGraphs.
Padres Explode for Four Runs in the Eighth Inning
San Diego took a 3-1 lead in the second inning when Ty France hit a three-run home run off Dodgers starter Roki Sasaki. France called it "good team baseball," per Deadspin. The game stayed close until the eighth, when the Padres broke it wide open.
Pinch-hitter Song Sung-mun delivered a two-run single with the bases loaded. Rodolfo Durán and Fernando Tatis Jr. added RBI hits to push the final score to 7-1, per CBS Sports. Sasaki, who finished with five walks in four-plus innings, struggled badly with command all night, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Buehler Reinvented Himself After Leaving Los Angeles
Buehler no longer throws the high-90s fastball that made him a Dodgers star. His velocity now sits at 92-94 mph, down from 98 mph before his 2022 Tommy John surgery. He has cut his four-seam fastball usage to just 20%, leaning instead on a cutter and sweeper, according to FanGraphs.
The results show the change is working. His cutter and sweeper are getting more swings and misses than any pitch he threw in his final Dodger years, per Baseball Savant. Buehler himself has said he had to "reinvent" himself and focus on execution rather than raw power, according to Sports Illustrated.
Roberts Praises Buehler Even as Dodgers Absorb the Loss
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was not surprised by what he saw. Before the game, Roberts said of Buehler: "What makes Walker such a great competitor and pitcher is he's very confident, and he's not afraid to fail... It's going to be fun competing against him this year," per the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The Dodgers still own a commanding 8-game lead in the NL West at 52-30. But with six more games against San Diego in the next 10 days, the next week could shape whether this division race stays comfortable or gets interesting, according to MLB.com.
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