Dodgers’ Walker Buehler roughed up as Giants reclaim NL West lead

SAN FRANCISCO — Maybe Johnny Wholestaff should be the front-runner for the National League Cy Young Award.

Coming into their weekend showdown by the bay, the San Francisco Giants’ starting rotation had dissolved. They only had one healthy starter – Anthony DeSclafani – to throw at the Dodgers with two all-hands-on-deck bullpen games to follow as the two rivals dueled for the division lead.

The Dodgers, on the other hand, felt so good about their situation that they declined to arrange their rotation so that Max Scherzer would pitch against the Giants, confident that Julio Urias and Walker Buehler on Saturday and Sunday would give them the upper hand.

That hand got slapped Sunday. Buehler struggled through his worst start of the season, allowing six runs in just three innings, as the Giants beat the Dodgers, 6-4.

“Not a whole lot was very good. Probably the worst I’ve thrown in a long time,” said Buehler, who had allowed just five runs over 34 innings in five previous starts against the Giants this season.

“They hit balls hard. They hit balls soft. I didn’t get ahead in the count. That’s kind of been one of my big things this year, getting ahead. I didn’t do that today. … Not my day and that happens.”

The Giants used six pitchers on Friday (in 11 innings), eight on Saturday and nine on Sunday – they were already on their fifth pitcher when Corey Seager stepped to the plate in the third inning as the Dodgers’ 14th batter.

The conga line from the bullpen carried the Giants back into first place. The Giants took two of three this weekend, walking away with a one-game lead in the NL West and taking the season series, 10-9 – which will give them home-field advantage for a Game 163 to determine the division title if they are tied at the end of the regular season.

“We have a month left,” Buehler said. “This was a big game, Sunday night game, tied in the division and all that. But what it boils down to is playing a better month of baseball than they do. That’s our goal and my goal.”

Buehler has a well-deserved reputation as a big-game pitcher despite his young age. But he did not come up big Sunday.

Over the first two games of the series, Dodgers pitchers had not allowed a home run to the Giants, the NL leaders in home runs. Buehler gave up a home run to the second batter he faced, Brandon Belt.

The Giants were 4 for 30 with runners in scoring position in those first two games. They went 4 for 6 against Buehler. Steven Duggar drove in two runs with a triple in the second inning. Darin Ruf followed with an RBI single. In the third, LaMonte Wade Jr. and Brandon Crawford had back-to-back doubles and Curt Casali an RBI single.

Buehler faced 17 batters in three innings, allowed five extra-base hits, two singles and a walk.

The six runs were the most he had allowed since Sept. 2, 2019 against the Colorado Rockies and one short of matching his career-high. The seven hits allowed matched his season-high. It was only the fourth time in 89 career starts Buehler has failed to pitch past the third inning.

All of this came on the heels of a 10-start run that had carried Buehler to the front of the Cy Young race in the National League. According to Elias Sports, Buehler’s streak of 10 consecutive starts allowing two runs or fewer and pitching six innings or more was one short of the franchise record (set by Kevin Brown in 2003).

“They were just on him tonight,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I think there were some missed locations, some bad luck and also some quality contact. There just wasn’t a lot of swing-and-miss stuff. You’ve got to give credit where credit is due. They took good at-bats against him.”

The four relievers that followed Buehler combined for five scoreless innings – including 1-2/3 from David Price, who was on the verge of going to the injured list with a sore elbow two days ago. But the Dodgers’ sputtering offense couldn’t dig out of the hole he had dug for them.

They had their chances. Giants relievers walked six in the four-inning stretch from the second through the fifth. But the Dodgers stranded eight runners on base in those innings, leaving the bases loaded in the third and fifth. Will Smith drove in their only runs with an RBI single in the second and a bases-loaded walk in the fifth.

“Situationally, we just didn’t finish the inning,” Roberts said. “I think we did a good job of building the inning but didn’t finish it. We let those guys off the hook.”

Those missed opportunities grew more glaring when Albert Pujols hit a pinch-hit two-run home run in the ninth inning. But the Dodgers have hit .202 as a team during their past 16 games and averaged only 3.6 runs per game.

“We’re fine. We’ve got a spot in the playoffs right now,” outfielder Mookie Betts said. “We’ve just got to keep playing the rest of the season and go from there.”

Max Muncy is batting .189 (20 for 106) since the start of August. Chris Taylor is 13 for 79 (.165) with 33 strikeouts in his past 22 games. Justin Turner is 14 for 62 (.226) over his past 19 but with just one extra-base hit (a double) in his past 16 games. Betts is batting .152 (5 for 33) in 10 games since returning from his hip injury.

And Cody Bellinger looks utterly lost at the plate – not a recent development.

“We lost a series. We got beat,” Roberts said. “We could have done things differently which could have been the difference in the series. But right now, it is what it is. We’ve got to find a way to quickly turn the page. We’ve got a game to win tomorrow.”