Dodgers News: Walker Buehler Takes Blame For Game 1 Loss To Giants
Walker Buehler, Buster Posey, 2021 NLDS
D. Ross Cameron/USA TODAY Sports

The Los Angeles Dodgers withstood a subpar start by Max Scherzer in the Wild Card Game, but were unable to overcome Walker Buehler struggling early in a loss to the San Francisco Giants in Game 1 of the National League Division Series.

Of course, the offense mustering only five hits and being held scoreless certainly didn’t aid matters. The Dodgers fell into an immediate deficit when Buster Posey went the other way on a 3-0 for a two-run home run in the first inning.

“Buster’s been in this game a long time. I think they obviously have trust in him to swing 3-0, and just a mistake heater,” Buehler said after the loss. “Obviously an area that he can drive the ball and just not a great throw, but it is what it is.”

The right-hander didn’t have a clean inning until the sixth but managed to keep the Giants’ lead to just 2-0 over that span. “I just had to get my tempo going a little bit, I think,” he said of settling in.

“I think we started getting into better counts and then you’ve got some room to miss productively a little bit more as opposed to the 3-0 (count).”

Buehler assumes responsibility for loss

Kris Bryant led off the seventh inning with a solo blast, marking the first time in 12 career postseason starts that Buehler surrendered multiple home runs.

“Obviously it’s on me to try and create some momentum, and I kind of sucked that out of our dugout,” Buehler said. “So at the end of the day this game is on me, but tried to stay in there and kind of battle as long as I could, but they had a good night, we didn’t and we’ll move forward.”

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