Walker Buehler struggles in second start as Dodgers lose series in San Diego

Buehler gave up back-to-back home runs in the first inning and left with the bases loaded in the fourth. Meanwhile, the Dodgers were shut out by Yu Darvish and the Padres' bullpen.

SAN DIEGO – The Dodgers had to know Walker Buehler’s return from a second Tommy John surgery, flexor tendon repair and nearly two years away from major-league competition probably wouldn’t go smoothly.

In that respect, he has met expectations.

Buehler gave up back-to-back home runs in the first inning and left with the bases loaded in the fourth inning as the Dodgers lost to the San Diego Padres 4-0 on Sunday afternoon at Petco Park.

“I think there’s a timeline before I kind of jump off a bridge kind of deal,” Buehler said of his own expectations. “Both starts have obviously some negative things as far as performance, but some encouraging things for me as far as the backside of it.

“It’s going to take me a minute. I don’t think you can re-create everything that goes with being a starting pitcher in the major leagues and I want to get deep into games and set us up to win and I didn’t do that today. But I think in this rehab thing, I kind of have to look at the good things. I threw some good pitches and got into some bad counts and good hitters put good swings on it, but I think I’m a little more encouraged today than I was in the last one.”

Buehler made his return to the Dodgers’ rotation last week at home against the Miami Marlins, going four innings and allowing three runs on six hits. His last two innings in that comeback start were his best and there was optimism that he would continue to progress on Sunday.

That optimism took a 1-2 punch in the first inning when Fernando Tatis Jr. crushed a Buehler fastball, sending it 442 feet over the center field fence. The next batter, Jake Cronenworth, did a shorter version of the same thing.

After a walk and a stolen base, Buehler got out of the first then avoided more damage in the second inning despite an infield single by Jackson Merrill and a double by Luis Arraez.

“In rehab, I think you get stuck in trying to feel good all the time and check all these boxes as opposed to pick your leg up and throw the ball,” Buehler said. “I think that’s probably the transition, is knowing that my stuff is good enough. It’s probably not gonna be what it was three years ago or four years ago or whatever it was, but I think my stuff is good enough and I just have to re-learn the chess game a little bit, I guess.”

Buehler retired the side in order in the third but ran into more trouble in the fourth.

The Padres loaded the bases with one out on a single, walk and hit batter, Buehler sending Ha-Seong Kim reeling with a fastball to the hand.

That was the end of Buehler’s day. Ryan Yarbrough minimized the damage, allowing just one run to score after Buehler left the scene.

“We just can’t lose sight of the fact that he hasn’t pitched in two years,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “When you’re talking about pitching in games and not in rehab mode, there’s a lot of things that come with that — commanding of the baseball, covering the bag, holding runners. I think that when you get into a big league ballgame and you’re trying to compete, get outs, things speed up, even for a guy like Walker.

“So for me, honing in that command of his pitches, getting strike one and then tightening up the other parts of it, I think then you’ll see the performance tick up. I think for me, I’m not going to put much stock in two outings. I think getting him back here, back in competition mode is a good thing and I think the stuff is good. I think again it’s just more harnessing all that stuff.”

How long that might take is uncertain. But Roberts said a pitcher with Buehler’s history of success will get ample opportunity to work things out and get there.

“I think given what he’s gone through, what we’re hoping he can be, expecting him to be, he’s going to get as much as he needs,” Roberts said. “For me, I don’t know if it’s five or six starts then it’ll kind of show itself and level out. But I do believe there’s going to be a point … where he’s going to make a big jump and feel like he’s back into the routine of every fifth or sixth day in competition mode and not in rehab mode.

“Like I said, it’s two years since he’s played competitively. Anyone is going to deserve – certainly with his track record – a handful, five, six starts.”

Buehler has his own time frame in mind.

“I think it’ll be before 10 starts that I’ll start getting really angry at myself if it keeps going like this,” he said. “But I think the next three or four starts, still trying to figure it out and put some things together.

“I want to stay in the rotation. We have a lot of really talented people here. So I’m trying to give myself a little grace period to not freak out. And in saying that, I’m not freaked out. I’m actually pretty encouraged by a lot of the things I’ve done. … But yeah, a few more starts that I’m kind of giving myself a little bit of grace. And then after that, that kind of ‘Happy to be here’ thing will go away.”

The Dodgers’ offense had no answers against Yu Darvish.

Darvish retired the first 14 Dodgers batters in order before walking Andy Pages with two outs in the fifth inning. That ended his perfect game. The next batter, Kike’ Hernandez, flared a single through the right side with Pages running and second baseman Xander Bogaerts moving to cover second base. That ended the no-hit bid.

Darvish gave up just one more hit in his seven scoreless innings, striking out seven. Since returning from a neck injury that landed him on the Injured List in April, Darvish hasn’t given up a run in 17 innings over three starts.

While Buehler struggled to get Padres hitters to swing and miss — he got just five on his 77 pitches in 3 1/3 innings — Darvish had the Dodgers baffled. They had 19 swings-and-misses against him, at least one each on the assortment of eight different pitches he threw — four-seam fastball, two-seam fastball, cut fastball, curveball, knuckle curve, slider, sweeper and changeup.

“He just mixed well,” Roberts said. “The fastball played up really well. He commanded it, used it a lot more than he typically does against us. The slider was good against left, versus right. We just couldn’t get anything going. He was in rhythm. He was locked in. They caught an early lead and we just didn’t threaten.”

The Dodgers have not been very threatening against the Padres.

The Padres took two of three games in the weekend series, drawing three sellout crowds and a total of 133,970 fans – a Petco Park record for a three-game series.

The Seoul-mates split their two-game series in South Korea but the Dodgers have now lost two series to the Padres, one in Los Angeles and one in San Diego. They scored 16 runs in the two games in Seoul. Since then, the Padres have held the Dodgers to a .171 batting average and 3.5 runs per game in six meetings on California soil.

“They’ve been really unpredictable,” Roberts said of the Padres’ pitching. “Part of it is attacking some of our hitters’ weaknesses, going to their strengths. But I really think that they’ve just mixed and matched well and they’ve executed. Obviously they get up to play us, and they’ve played well.”