Walker Buehler has struggled this season, posting a 5.45 ERA over 112.1 innings with a career-low 16.5% strikeout rate and a career-high 10.8% walk rate. The Red Sox moved him to the bullpen after his last start to reassess his role. In his first relief outing he threw all seven pitches but did not gain a meaningful velocity increase, walked a batter, allowed two hits and two runs, and failed to protect the lead. A specific at-bat against Trent Grisham illustrated repeated missed locations and a five-pitch walk, underscoring persistent command issues and inconsistency.
Simply put, Buehler has not been good this season. He has a 5.45 ERA in 112.1 innings this season. He's striking out a career-low 16.5% of hitters and walking a career-high 10.8%. As the king of looking for a silver lining in a Red Sox pitcher's performance, Buehler is a tough one to defend. The Red Sox, at least with their actions, had a hard time defending Buehler as well. After his last start, the team announced they would be moving him to the bullpen.
Unfortunately, after a single relief appearance, Buehler looks more or less like the same guy, at least in terms of approach. He used all seven of his pitches, and didn't see a meaningful bump in velocity in a shorter role. It was his first bullpen appearance, and he needed to cover multiple innings, so I'm willing to ignore the lack of velocity increase for now.
Here's Trent Grisham with one out in the seventh inning. The first pitch is a fastball on the inside corner for strike one. Good pitch. Buehler follows it up with a slider that misses on the inside edge to even the count. At 1-1, Buehler goes with the changeup that misses badly. Buehler again misses with a curveball for 3-1. And Buehler again misses badly to put Grisham on first base on five pitches.
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