Walker Buehler feels ‘flat’ through first two starts with Red Sox
Buehler gave up five runs in the Red Sox' home opener on Friday.
The Red Sox’ bats showed out in their home opener on Friday, scoring 13 runs in their win over the Cardinals. But their pitching did not.
Walker Buehler had another rough outing in his second start as a member of the Red Sox. The righty allowed five runs on seven hits, one walk, and four strikeouts in five innings as Boston’s pitching staff surrendered nine runs total. The start came a week after Buehler allowed four runs in 4 1/3 innings against the Rangers, bringing his ERA on the young season to 8.68 following Friday’s start.
While Buehler was “very happy” to pick up the win from a team perspective, he felt he “dampened the mood” for himself with his outing on Friday.
“It’s frustrating, to say the least,” Buehler told reporters following Friday’s game. “You come into a new team and whatever pedigree I have, I want to show that. I want to be that guy here. I want to help this team win. To not do that the first two weeks is frustrating, but it’s a long season. I’ve definitely struggled before and I’ll struggle again. I want to have the highs to go along with it.”
Buehler had a strong first two innings in Friday’s game, retiring six of the first seven Cardinals hitters he faced. But as the Red Sox gave him a 5-0 cushion entering the second, Buehler began to struggle when the Cardinals made their second trip through the lineup. Ivan Herrera crushed his slider in the fourth for a three-run homer and Brendan Donovan took Buehler deep in the fifth off his fastball.
Buehler gave up a homer in his start against the Rangers last week as well, telling reporters that he feels “flat” to open the year.
“For me, it’s hard to figure out everything other than that,“ Buehler said. “I feel good. I feel physically good. I like the work I’ve gotten in every week and all through spring. I came in in a really good spot.”
Through his first two starts, Buehler’s velocity on all of his pitches is down from where they were last year, when he returned from Tommy John surgery. His fastball is traveling at 93.3 mph so far in 2025, down from 95 mph in 2024 and would be a career low. His 9.1 whiff rate on his fastball and 14.3 whiff rate on his cutter (his two most frequent pitches) would be the lowest of his career, by far.
Of course, two starts are a small sample size and Buehler could be ramping things up. But his early struggles aren’t ideal after he posted a 5.38 ERA with the Dodgers in the regular season last year.
“It’s been so long since I’ve been so dominant as I want to be or been the guy that I want to be,” Buehler said. “I’ve had it for two or three starts at a time throughout the past year and a half, especially in the playoffs. But you don’t make many playoff rosters with a 7.00, 8.00, or 9.00 ERA. I’m not going to keep hanging my hat on the fact I showed up in October. I want to show up in April, May, June, July, and August and go about it that way.”
As Buehler mentioned, he had a pretty strong postseason with the Dodgers last year. He recorded a 3.60 ERA in 15 innings over four outings, striking out 13 hitters while posting a 1.13 WHIP.
Buehler was hoping to figure some things out before the playoffs in 2024, recording a more respectable 4.44 ERA in September. He isn’t sure yet how close he is to turning the corner, but he wants to get on the right track sooner this year than he did last year.
“All in all, there’s some encouraging stuff coming out of my hand with the way my body’s moving,” Buehler said. “I don’t want to revert to last year but I started with the same things where I didn’t have it flying out like it always has. We’re working hard and figuring some things out.”
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