If it’s Game 3 of the World Series for the Dodgers, Walker Buehler needs to be on the mound.

As he did in 2018 and 2020, Buehler will start Game 3 of the World Series for the Dodgers on Monday. The Dodgers won both of his last two World Series starts, in which he went a total of 13 innings with just five hits, one run, one walk and 17 strikeouts.

“I feel great that Walker is playing baseball on the road against a team that has never seen him,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “He’s a big pitcher, and every game in the World Series is a big game. We have the opportunity to gain distance in this series.”

However, Walker Buehler, who underwent his second Tommy John surgery in 2022, is not expected to return this season. In 2018 – three years after his first Tommy John – Buehler started Game 3 against the Red Sox and reached 100 mph with his fastball, averaging 98 mph. In 2020 against the Rays, he averaged 96.9 mph with his four-seam fastball. In his last start on October 16 in the NLDS against the Mets, he averaged just 93.8 mph with his four-seam fastball, with a maximum of 95.4 mph.

When Buehler finished fourth in the Cy Young voting in 2021, he threw his four-seater 44.7 percent of the time. This year he threw it just 29 percent of the time – still the weapon he throws most often, but no longer the weapon it once was.

At his best, Buehler not only had the gas needed to reach triple figures, but also four other pitches – the cutter, a knuckle curve and a sinker. He has since added a sweeper and a slider and only threw the slider 1.3 percent of the time during the season and not at all against the Mets.

It’s not just season-to-season changes, but Buehler has changed his repertoire between his two postseason starts this season – a fumble in Game 3 of the NLDS in which he allowed six runs over five innings against the Padres and then went scoreless four innings against the Mets in Game 3 of the NLCS.

“I think the weather and the stadium have something to do with it,” Bühler said on Sunday. “I think since I’ve never pitched here (at Yankee Stadium), I’m not sure that’s going to continue.”

At Buehler’s start in San Diego earlier this month it was 68 degrees with a 5 mph wind, and at his start at Citi Field in the NLCS it was 51 degrees with an 8 mph wind. First pitch at Yankee Stadium tonight is expected to be 54 degrees and winds of 6 miles per hour.

While Buehler’s platoon split was relatively even this season (.833 OPS in 167 plate appearances by right-handers and .890 by left-handers in 177 plate appearances), the Mets only had one left-hander and one switch-hitter in their lineup against Bühler. The Padres, who only had eight Whiffs against them, had four lefties and a switch hitter. Tonight, the Yankees will line up four lefties against him, including Juan Soto, who is 2-of-10 against Buehler in his career but hasn’t faced him since 2022, before his second Tommy John surgery.