Walker Buehler, who went 11 for 12 Saturday night with six strikeouts in the second through fifth innings, could play in the Dodgers’ postseason rotation.
Buehler, who allowed three runs and three hits, threw 42 pitches in the first two innings, walking one batter and striking out another. Not so much.
The quest for end-to-end consistency and the length of a dominant streak that made Buehler the team’s ace in 2019-21 has yielded to the right-hander. Defeat 6-3 the Colorado Rockies before a sold-out crowd of 52,267 at Chavez Ravine, further muddied the team’s playoff pitching picture.
The Dodgers had a chance for a dramatic victory when they loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, but Rockies right-hander Seth Halvorsen fired a 100 mph fastball from Max Muncy for the game-ending hit.
The loss cut the Dodgers’ NL lead to three games over San Diego and five over Arizona, keeping their magic number at five games with seven games remaining, three against the Padres at home this week.
Buehler, who missed the first five weeks of the season recovering from a second Tommy John surgery and two months from mid-June to mid-August with a left hip injury, allowed four earned runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings, striking out nine and walking one, as he fell to 1-6 with a 5.63 ERA in 13 starts.
It somewhat belied the progress Buehler had made in his previous start, when he struggled with control issues early in a six-inning, two-run (one earned), five-hit shutout in a 9-2 victory at Atlanta last month on Sept. 15.
Buehler allowed one run in a 27-pitch first inning that Charlie Blackmon started with a double off center fielder Tommy Edman. Ezekiel Tovar walked, the runners advanced on a wild pitch and Blackmon scored when Buehler threw over Michael Toglia’s head after catching a hit by the left-hander.
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Tolia stole second and put runners on second and third, but Buehler minimized the damage by striking out Brendan Rodgers and Sam Hilliard on 92 mph balls.
The Rockies increased the lead to 3-0 when Nolan Jones reached on an infield single, Jacob Stallings lined a pitch and Tovar doubled into the left-field corner.
The Dodgers cut the lead to 3-2 when Shohei Ohtani walked on four pitches and Mookie Betts drove a 93 mph first-pitch drive off right-hander Cal Quantrill into the left-center field pavilion for his 20th home run of the season.
Muncie led with one out in the bottom of the fourth, Gavin Lux singled to right field and rookie catcher Hunter Feduxia hit an RBI single to right field for his first major league RBI and a 3-3 tie.
Buehler rebounded from his rough start to retire nine straight batters before connecting on a 77 mph curveball to Ryan McMahon, who launched a two-run homer — his 20th of the season — into the left-center field seats for a 4-3 Colorado lead on the way in the fifth.
The Dodgers threatened in the fifth, loading the bases with two outs, but Rockies left-hander Luis Peralta replaced Quantrill and struck out Lux on a 97 mph pitch to end the inning. They put two on with one out in the seventh, but Betts grounded into a 5-4-3 double play.
The Rockies got two big insurance runs from Daniel Hudson in the ninth, Jake Cave singled to right field and Blackmon hit a two-run homer to right field on a 95-yard 0-and-2 ball to take a 6-3 lead.
With Buehler struggling to cement a spot in the team’s playoff rotation, another option, albeit a long one, appeared Saturday night in Salt Lake City, where Tony Gonsolin threw 45 pitches over three innings and gave up six hits in his third comeback start for Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Gonsolin is a year removed from Tommy John surgery, but manager Dave Roberts said before Saturday’s game that the 30-year-old right-hander and 2022 All-Star could emerge as a candidate for the postseason rotation or bullpen.
“He’s been doing well, so we’ve got to keep him active,” manager Dave Roberts said before Saturday’s game. “If all goes well, I think it’s more reasonable to talk about him joining us at some point.”
Gonsolin must make at least one more start, for the Dodgers or Oklahoma City, and throw 60 pitches over four innings before being considered for a rotation spot. But he has bullpen experience, making eight relief appearances between 2019 and 2021.
“The great thing about Tony is that he’s done both, and I think there’s value in both,” Roberts said. “No. The first thing is to get it right, develop it, and then we’ll evaluate where our staff is.
