Red Sox's Walker Buehler Shared What Led To Big-Time Turnaround

The Boston Red Sox turned to Walker Buehler on Thursday night as they tried to stop a three-game losing streak against one of the team's biggest rivals.

Boston welcomed the Toronto Blue Jays to town for a four-game series and dropped the first three contests. The Red Sox's bats have been dead over the last few days after a red-hot stretch. Boston entered Thursday's tilt coming off a disappointing extra innings loss on Wednesday and needed Buehler to help turn things around.

That's exactly what he did. Buehler was brought to town with the hope that he would turn it back to his pre-injury days with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He's just 30 years old and injuries impacted the last few seasons, but he's another year removed from his injury and was dominant in the postseason for Los Angeles and even got the last out of the World Series.

His first two starts didn't go as planned, but he was dominant on Thursday night. He has his best start fo the season so far by far and finished the day after pitching 6 1/3 innings. He allowed one earned run, struck out seven batters, and allowed just four base hits. He looked like the star that he is. One thing that's important to note too is that when he exited the game he hadn't allowed a run, but he was responsible for a base runner who did go on to score.

Buehler talked about what was different about this week leading up to the start, as transcribed by WEEI's Rob Bradford.

"We put in a ton of work this week with everyone in the building about what we’re seeing, what we’re feeling and it paid off this week, and now it’s kind of rinse and repeat and hope it kind of stays in there," Buehler said as trancribed by Bradford. "I just felt more violent than I have in a long time. That’s how I play when I’m good...

"This week was a big one for me, just in terms of workload because I’m trying to figure it out and I’m kind of tired of sucking. I kind of pushed my chips a little bit more on the table this week than I typically have."

This is a guy who can take Boston to another level. He's an All-Star, ace-level pitcher when he's at his best. If the Red Sox have a rotation with Garrett Crochet, Tanner Houck, and Buehler firing on all cylinders, they can have one of the best rotations in baseball. That doesn't even include guys like Brayan Bello, Lucas Giolito, and Kutter Crawford who have massive upside as well.

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