As has been the case all season long, Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Walker Buehler was at the top of his game during his outing against the New York Mets on Friday.
Buehler completed 7.0+ innings for the 11th time in his season, as he simply had his way against the sluggish Mets offense. The NL Cy Young Award candidate finished the game with a mere two earned runs allowed, eight strikeouts recorded and an astounding 17 swings and misses.
For the moment, Buehler leads MLB in ERA with a 2.11 mark, which ranks just above Milwaukee Brewers ace Corbin Burnes (2.13) for the top figure in the league.
As it stands, Buehler is on the verge of making it seven times over 11 seasons for a Dodgers starting pitcher to finish the season as the ERA leader in all of baseball, which would see him join current teammate Clayton Kershaw (2011-2014), Zack Greinke (2015) and Hyun Jin Ryu (2019) in this impressive feat.
Walker Buehler: 2.11 ERA, best in MLB.
Dodgers to lead MLB in ERA in previous decade:
2011: Kershaw
2012: Kershaw
2013: Kershaw
2014: Kershaw
2015: Greinke
2019: Ryu— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) August 21, 2021
Buehler is well also showing that he is the clear favorite for the NL Cy Young Award this season. He also ranks first in quality starts (22), second in innings pitched (162.1), and is tied for third in strikeouts with new Dodgers teammate Max Scherzer (170).
Even as he is putting together the best season of his career, Buehler noted after last night's game that he is not all too invested in this year's NL Cy Young Award race.
“It's not something that I really care about,” Buehler said. “I want us to win games and win the division and get to the playoffs and do what we did last year and what we set out to do every year. If I somehow put us in a position and have a type [of season] here to be in [the Cy Young] conversation, that's great. But at the end of the day, it's about winning games, and that's my big focus.”
Buehler surely will be in a tightly contested race over the remainder of the season with aces such as Philadelphia Phillies star Zack Wheeler for this coveted award.
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