Buehler hard on himself after struggling in return from IL

MILWAUKEE -- It was fair to wonder what the Dodgers were going to get from Walker Buehler in his return to the mound on Wednesday.

Buehler spent close to two months on the injured list with a right hip injury. He's struggled in 2024 (5.84 ERA in eight starts), after he missed all of last season recovering from Tommy John surgery.

The right-hander had a challenging outing in the Dodgers’ 5-4 loss to the Brewers at American Family Field, throwing 3 1/3 innings and allowing four runs (one earned) on three hits and four walks with one strikeout.

Los Angeles’ lead over San Diego and Arizona in the NL West dropped to 2 1/2 games with the loss.

There were moments when the Dodgers’ defense let Buehler down, and there were others where it picked him up. But ultimately, he knows his performance wasn’t good enough.

“I feel closer than I did a couple months ago,” Buehler said of what he takes away from the outing. “But as I've said, at the end of the day, there's a standard of performing here, and I'm very aware of where I'm at in that standard.”

Buehler, who threw 87 pitches (46 strikes) before exiting, walked the first three hitters he faced (Brice Turang, Jackson Chourio and Tyler Black) on 17 pitches (six strikes). Of the 25 pitches Buehler threw in the first, just 11 were strikes.

With the bases loaded, William Contreras hit a line drive that center fielder Kevin Kiermaier hauled in. Kiermaier fired a strike to catcher Austin Barnes, throwing out Turang for a double play. Kiermaier’s throw was 99 mph, according to Statcast, the fastest outfield assist by a Dodger since Statcast began tracking in 2015.

“I just want to go out there and try to create a spark any way I can, and defense is my bread and butter,” Kiermaier said. “I live for those opportunities.”

Buehler struck out Willy Adames to escape the first scoreless, but he had a laborious second inning. He threw 35 pitches (21 strikes) and surrendered a solo homer to Jake Bauers that cut the Dodgers’ lead to 3-1.

Barnes was set up for a low pitch, and Buehler threw Bauers a four-seamer at the letters that he hit a Statcast-projected 107 mph.

“It’s just too many misfires,” Buehler said. “There’s just too many holes in my delivery, in terms of where little things can go wrong. I think guys will tell you when you're rolling, you can make adjustments really quick. I'm just not making them quick enough. I think I'm able to make a little bit smaller adjustments than I used to, which is the goal.

“But there's still some really big misses after misses, which is just not good enough.”

After Bauers’ homer, Sal Frelick reached on a tough-luck error charged to Nick Ahmed, on a grounder the shortstop mishandled charging in and to his right. Frelick scored on a Turang triple two batters later.

It was one of three errors made by the Dodgers. A Joey Ortiz grounder went under Kiké Hernández’s glove in the fourth, and Garrett Mitchell -- who reached on a leadoff walk by Buehler -- scored from third. In the seventh, a Chourio single went under Mookie Betts’ glove, allowing Ortiz to score the go-ahead run.

“I know that guy's fast and tried to make a play,” Betts said. “I just missed it.”

Buehler got through the third inning 1-2-3, throwing 14 pitches (six strikes). Manager Dave Roberts went to the bullpen after Hernández’s error in the fourth.

“Just from the eye test, he was out of sync tonight,” Roberts said of Buehler’s outing. “He was working behind hitters, and then you're trying to find your way back into counts. It’s hard to live like that, so the walks certainly weren't ideal. … I think you see he’s still searching.”

Wednesday was only Buehler’s ninth start in the Majors since he underwent Tommy John surgery. But he did not want to attribute his delivery issues to the extensive time he’s missed in recent years.

The right-hander has been encouraged by his work in bullpens and catch play, and transferring that to the mound is perhaps a next step for him. Roberts was asked what he wants to see from Buehler next.

“He's got to go deeper in the game,” Roberts said. “I think it's just now when you're here, it is about performance, and we all know that. It's not from a lack of effort, lack of searching, lack of compete. But at some point, we just got to get the production. That's something that, obviously, no one's more bothered by that than Walker.”