to the side,” Buehler explains. “I spin the ball pretty well,
not crazy but well enough, and I think that’s where it came
from. Him saying that forever definitely didn’t hurt.”
As Martinez waited, Buehler’s body uncoiled with speed
and power, his sinews and muscles firing like the bent wooden
beams and twisted cords of gut and horsehair that powered
the katapeltes thousands of years ago. Snake eyes sent the
fastball spinning at 2,581 rpm—318 rpm above the MLB
average—and at 98.2 mph. It was a fastball right down themiddle, a pitch Martinez had
missed for strike three only
twice all year. This pitch—this
moment—defined Buehler and
what he can do with a baseball.
“Selfishly, I really like
punching guys out,” he says.
“That’s like my thing. That’s
what I enjoy doing. I like pitch-
ing. I like all of it.... But if I
had to pick one thing I like best, I like punching guys out.”
Martinez swung and missed. He dropped his head in
defeat all the way back to the dugout.
Koufax blurted out, “Yeah!” and rose from his seat, ap-
plauding. Buehler gave one quick cold stare at Martinez,
then threw both arms up, yelled, “Let’s go!” and broke out
an I-own-the-joint strut back to the dugout as if walking out
of a saloon in an old Western. There, Clayton Kershaw, heir
to Koufax in the panoply of great Dodgers power pitchers,
threw his arms around his own heir.
This was the last pitch of 2018 for Buehler and the first
pitch of the rest of his career. He struck out seven Red Sox
over seven innings. He allowed two hits and no walks. There
have been 1,330 starts in World Series history. Only twice
did a pitcher allow no more than two base runners, with
no walks and at least seven strikeouts. The other was Don
Larsen in his 1956 perfect game.A
FTER BUEHLER’S 2018 workload, the Dodgers
ramped him up slowly in spring training, a conserva-
tive approach that contributed to his 5.22 ERA
through the end of April. But as he regained full arm
strength, Buehler has established himself as a master crafts-
man with a historic combination of power and command.
“I’m just now starting to feel good and get dialed in,”Buehler said last month. “One of the biggest keys I pay at-
tention to is throwing first-pitch strikes. When you do that,
you control the count and you pitch deep into games. That’s
what I want to do every time.”
Only 10 pitchers have struck out 11 or more batters without
a walk four times in the same season. Buehler and Koufax are
the only Dodgers pitchers to do so. Buehler accomplished it in
a span of just 10 starts, capped by a stunning 15-K complete-
game win over San Diego on Aug. 3. He threw only 30 balls33
SPORT S ILLUS TR ATED
• AUGUS T 12, 2019
FALL GUYS
Koufax (in light-blue
shirt), who knows a
thing or two about
World Series heroics,
was among the many at
Dodger Stadium to be
impressed by Buehler’s
steely Game 3 outing.“Selfishly, I really like PUNCHING GUYS OUT,” says Buehler, who is seventh in the
National League in strikeouts this season. “That’s like my thing. That’s what I enjoy doing.
I like pitching. I like all of it.... But if I had to pick one think I like best, I like punching guys out.”