Red Sox
“This organization put a lot of faith in me this offseason and I’ve been [expletive] embarrassing for us.”
The last time Walker Buehler was on the mound at Yankee Stadium before Friday’s game against the Yankees, he helped the Dodgers record the final three outs in their 2024 World Series win. His first start in The Bronx as a member of the Red Sox didn’t go anywhere near as smoothly.
Buehler was rocked to the tune of seven runs (five earned) on seven hits, two walks, and two strikeouts in two innings pitched in Boston’s 9-6 loss to New York on Friday. All five earned runs Buehler allowed came in the first inning, allowing the Yankees to bat around the lineup as Jazz Chisholm hit a three-run homer before Anthony Volpe hit a two-run shot. Both homers came with two outs in the inning.
Friday’s start was the second in a row that Buehler allowed five earned runs, giving up that many to the Braves last Saturday. As Buehler has had an up-and-down first season in Boston, he wasn’t shy in expressing his frustration with his performance.
“This organization put a lot of faith in me this offseason and I’ve been [expletive] embarrassing for us,” Buehler told reporters
Buehler, who signed a one-year, $21.05 million deal with the Red Sox this offseason in hopes of potentially securing a larger payday down the road, now has a 5.18 ERA this season. He’s only recorded a quality start (six-plus innings pitched, three or fewer earned runs allowed) in three of his first 10 outings. He’s thrown five or fewer innings in six of his starts.
There had been some promise, though, that Buehler might have turned the corner before his start last Saturday against the Braves. He had posted a 3.44 ERA in his six starts prior to that, with an injured list stint falling in the middle of that stretch as he missed nearly a month due to injury.
However, Buehler’s outing on Friday quickly brought back all concerns surrounding him as the Red Sox looked to get back to .500.
“It’s tough,” Buehler said. “It’s obviously a big game and a big rivalry that I was excited to be a part of. And for it to go the way that it did is super disappointing, especially after the past two, three weeks of kind of prep and throwing and all that kinda [expletive] and how I’m feeling. Physically I feel great and for it to happen that way, it sucks.”
Buehler’s struggles in the first inning of Friday’s game are just part of a larger issue the Red Sox’ pitching staff has had in the opening inning as of late. They’ve allowed 21 runs in the first inning of their last 13 games. For the season, Boston has a 7.06 ERA with 16 home runs allowed in the first inning through its first 65 games.
“It’s hard to play this way,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said of the team’s first-inning struggles.
Lucas Giolito, who is in his first season on the mound with the Red Sox after missing the entire 2024 campaign due to injury, had a rough first inning in Wednesday’s game against the Angels. He gave up four runs that day, and similar to Buehler, ripped himself with expletives.
“I need to figure it the [expletive] out,” Giolito told reporters.
Buehler is also trying to figure it out, too. All but seven of his 67 pitches were off-speed or breaking balls, with the Yankees recording all of their hits off Buehler against those pitches.
Buehler’s slider got the most usage out of any pitch on Friday, using it 27 times. Opposing hitters have hit .304 against Buehler’s slider this season, with his knuckle curve (.429 opposing batting average) and cutter (.406) being his worst pitches in that regard.
“I don’t want to dig too deep into it. Obviously, I’m throwing a lot of sliders. I’m throwing a lot of [the] two-seamer,” Buehler said of his pitches. “Those traditionally haven’t been what I do very often. And I think when the sweeper is never in the zone like it hasn’t been, the curveball’s gonna get hit more than it has, the cutter’s gonna get hit more than it has.”
Buehler’s ineffectiveness is obviously a bummer for a 30-35 Red Sox squad that had playoff hopes entering the season. But it also continues the struggles and inconsistency he’s had since his final seasons with the Dodgers, posting a 4.75 ERA in his last two years in Los Angeles as he missed the entire 2023 campaign due to Tommy John surgery.
“I feel like I’ve said this for two years straight now but I feel like I’m getting closer as weird as that sounds,” Buehler said. “But for me to have kind of the four- or five- start stretch that I had right before I went on the IL of being largely successful and then to have these couple in a row is [expletive] super disappointing.”
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