NEW YORK – Walker Buehler lives for October.

That's the first thing he said after helping the Los Angeles Dodgers win the division last month. Their late September game against the rival Padres had a playoff feel, and after struggling through months of fluctuating results, his return to dominance against San Diego gave Buehler more confidence that he can step up for his club when he needs to the most.

That happened on Wednesday in the deciding Game 3 of the National League Championship Series, where it was up to Buehler to set the tone against the New York Mets. With the series tied one game at a time and the Mets holding home-field advantage, it would take a bold performance from Buehler to give the Los Angeles lineup enough breathing room to do its job.

Not only did Buehler deliver, he put on a show that we haven't seen from the 30-year-old in several years.

“It’s so overused, but pressure is a privilege,” Buehler said. “When I talk about how many starts I've been able to make, that's the privilege of it, isn't it? I've gotten to do this a lot, and these games definitely excite me, but they don't overwhelm me that much. “When I was young, I made the first few (playoff) starts. I'm just lucky to be part of this organization and especially this team.

Buehler allowed just three hits and struck out six in four scoreless frames in the Dodgers' 8-0 victory over the Mets at Citi Field. He finished his performance by retiring seven batters in a row, but no moment better exemplified his gutsy performance than his dramatic second-inning matchup against Francisco Lindor.

With two outs and the bases loaded, the Mets threatened to wipe out Los Angeles' 2-0 lead when their MVP shortstop advanced into the box. But Buehler had a game plan to follow, and he didn't let New York's best hitter get in the way of executing it. He threw his best offspeed pitch of the night, a 78 mph knuckle curveball, so many times between his 95 mph that Lindor was thrown off balance. Finally, with the count complete and 43,883 fans on their feet, Buehler got Lindor to hit another curveball and miss to end the inning and the threat. He ran screaming from the mound into the cold October air, daring the Mets to even attempt to beat him.

“For me personally, it’s huge,” Buehler said of Lindor’s exclusion. “I think the last time I really made a pitch like that in the playoffs was in 2020 (NLCS) against Atlanta.”

Buehler said he channeled “the fear of pitching the way I've pitched all year” to get out of the bases-loaded jam. He struggled to find his new identity during his return from Tommy John surgery this season, posting a 5.84 ERA in his first eight starts of 2024 before landing on the injured list with hip inflammation in June . As he began to trust his mechanics again, Buehler said that throwing a big shot at a big spot was one of the last items on his checklist that would prove to him that he was back to pre-surgery shape.

Buehler missed that chance in Game 3 of the NLDS against the Padres, who used him for six runs in the second inning of a Dodgers loss. Buehler faced another stressful second inning on Wednesday after giving up two walks and an infield single to load the bases and coming through with consecutive strikeouts – capped by the curve to Lindor.

“I don’t think anyone over there expected Walker to throw that pitch in that situation,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “That’s why Walker did it.”

As much as the Dodgers needed the win, perhaps this was the Mets' game had take. With Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Jack Flaherty competing in Games 4 and 5, Wednesday was New York's best opportunity to put Los Angeles at a disadvantage. Jose Quintana starts for the Mets on Thursday, so they were hoping to take a 3-1 lead by Game 5 on Friday. But Bühler had other plans.

Buehler skillfully relied on his offspeed pitches to keep Mets hitters off balance, recording more swings-and-misses (11) by the end of the second inning than in his five innings against the Padres last week (8) . According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Buehler's 18 total swings-and-misses were his most since 2021 and the most in the first four innings of a postseason game by a pitcher since Kyle Lohse in 2003. The Dodgers would have been happy with the right-hander , given the way he acted, pitching beyond the fourth inning. But because Buehler averaged more than 20 pitchers per inning, he only faced the Mets twice in the order.

That wasn't a problem for Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who was preparing for a situation like Game 3 – where multiple innings would have to be covered by his highly effective relief arms. After Buehler's night ended a little early, Michael Kopech, Ryan Brasier and Blake Treinen combined to pitch three shutout innings and four strikeouts while allowing just one hit out of the pen. Catcher Will Smith said Brasier's double-play ball to Jose Iglesias to end the sixth inning completely ended any chance the Mets had of building momentum.

He was right. The Dodgers' at-bats continued to pile up – including home runs from Shohei Ohtani, Kiké Hernández and Muncy – while the Mets' slim hopes of a comeback, no matter how resilient they were this postseason, completely vanished. But belief that New York could take a lead in the series was already on the way out when Buehler struck out a zero in each inning.

“In my career here as a Dodger, Walker was probably one of the most successful playoff pitchers I've ever seen,” Treinen said. “I think that after he came back from the operation he learned a lot on the fly. And whatever he's done lately, the results haven't always matched his good pitching. Today it was nice to see the results of the hard work he puts in.

Buehler's 17 playoff starts are second only to Clayton Kershaw in Dodgers franchise history. Before undergoing a second UCL reconstruction in August 2022, he posted a phenomenal career ERA of 2.94 in October. Although that mark suffered a setback in the NLDS, Buehler rebounded with three error-free frames against the Padres – after they initially rocked him – and boosted the Dodgers' record of 33 scoreless innings in the postseason.

As he continued Wednesday on the long and winding road that has forced the two-time All-Star to reinvent himself, Buehler reminded baseball of one thing as he led the Dodgers to a tremendous victory: He's still Walker Buehler.

Deesha Thosar is an MLB reporter for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. Deesha, the daughter of Indian immigrants, grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.

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