Walker Buehler is set for Dodgers vs Padres again, this time as a San Diego Padres starter facing the Los Angeles Dodgers for the second time. The matchup comes with the Dodgers in first place in the NL West and the Padres chasing from nine games back.
Walker Buehler Returns
Buehler enters at 4-3 with a 3.96 ERA. He has allowed one run in each of his last four starts, and the Padres are 3-1 in those games. That stretch gives San Diego a steadier line at the front of the rotation than it had earlier in the year.
This is his second time opposing the Dodgers since moving to San Diego. Last year, he allowed three runs in 4 ⅔ innings in a no-decision against them. He has also produced only three quality starts in 15 starts this year, so the current run is the sharper version of what the Padres need here.
Dodgers At the Top
The Los Angeles Dodgers came in at 52-29 and owned baseball’s best record, plus a run differential of 144. They also led the majors with a.783 OPS, ranked second in rotation ERA at 3.25, and sat 10th in bullpen ERA at 3.68. In May, they took two of three from the Padres, which is the margin behind the nine-game division gap.
That gap is the complication inside the matchup. The Padres arrived after sweeping the Braves and winning six of their last 10 games, but they still trailed the Dodgers by nine games and were only a half-game behind the St. Louis Cardinals for the NL's No. 3 wild-card spot. San Diego needed the kind of start Buehler has just put together, not the one that wobbled earlier in the season.
Rotation Pressure
The rest of the series adds more weight to the same thread. Yoshinobu Yamamoto was 7-5 with a 2.65 ERA and had quality starts in five of his last six outings, while Randy Vásquez was bumped from Wednesday to Saturday after a six-start slump that included a 6.91 ERA, 12 walks and seven home runs allowed over 27⅓ innings. The Dodgers also had Emmet Sheehan lined up at 3-5 with a 5.32 ERA, and he had lost each of his last four starts.
San Diego’s side has its own form to carry into the matchup. Fernando Tatis Jr. had an 18-game on-base streak and led the Padres with a.854 OPS in June, while Manny Machado led the club with four home runs in June. For Buehler, the question is simple enough: can the Padres keep getting the version that has held opponents to one run in four straight starts when the Dodgers are waiting on the other side of the mound?
