NEW YORK – This version of Walker Buehler arrived at Citi Field’s cauldron in October, the bases loaded and the night destined for disaster. These are the moments that Bühler values ​​so much, that he longed for so much in the months of self-discovery, that brought him back to this point.

In the midst of the worst season of his career, he summed it up: His track record in big games was “kind of the only thing that interests me.”

Buehler did this by bullying his opposition. His fastball buzzed in triple digits and missed at-bats, a proven weapon that got him out of the bases-loaded jams of years past and imposed his will on opposing lineups. When he was backed into a corner, he didn’t come out tap dancing. He rammed his way through.

So yes, Buehler admitted Wednesday night, the old version of himself would have thrown a fastball to Francisco Lindor in the second inning with the bases loaded, a full count, two outs and a narrow early advantage.

This version of Buehler threw a curveball that broke over the plate and past Lindor’s bat to eliminate the night’s biggest threat, ending one of four scoreless innings in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 8-0 victory over the New York Mets Game 3 of the National League Championship Series.

“That,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “was the heart of the game.”

A second Tommy John surgery has made much of the previous version of Buehler feel like a distant memory. His 5.38 ERA during the regular season, when Buehler was on the verge of finally reaching free agency, felt like a cruel twist. And it was the shortcomings of this current version of Buehler – the lack of the ability to generate swing-and-miss or consistently find his command – that led to his first start of this postseason last week against the San Diego Padres being like this got completely out of control. with a six-run second inning that stained his final line in a Dodgers loss.

In the second inning on Wednesday night, Buehler seemed to be having trouble again. JD Martinez drew a one-out walk. Jose Iglesias hit a sharp grounder that Tommy Edman couldn’t handle for an infield single. Another walk to Tyrone Taylor loaded the bases with one out. And while Buehler froze Francisco Alvarez with a two-strike fastball that hit the outside half of the plate, the threat wasn’t over yet as the top of the lineup rolled over for a second time.

Lindor didn’t offer the first two-strike break ball that Buehler attempted. When Buehler threw a fastball, Lindor fouled the first ball at the top of the zone. He watched as another ship sailed far across the zone to complete the count.

Bühler did not give in to old habits. Roberts, standing from the dugout, suspected a curveball might get Lindor out. Will Smith, behind the plate, thought the same thing.

“Just keep doing what’s been working,” Smith said. Buehler’s curveball had some of his best movement all season.

Bühler didn’t shake. The man who once fired five consecutive two-strike fastballs at Eddie Rosario in a postseason game wasn’t trying to overwhelm the New York superstar with speed. Instead, Buehler threw another two-hitter break ball that broke through the heart of the plate.

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

Lindor waved through, and another chapter in Buehler’s October story was written. And a lesson officially learned.

“With 3-2 and the bases loaded, I now have to throw a curveball instead of a heater,” Buehler said.

The Dodgers are now two wins away from returning to the World Series.

The turnaround came amid the worst period of Buehler’s career. His confidence plummeted over the summer as he landed back on the injured list with an unsightly 5.84 ERA and no real performance in sight. He fled for weeks to a private facility in Florida, only to be throttled again upon his return.

“For a long time, one of my greatest strengths was probably my self-confidence,” said Buehler. “Sometimes it fluctuated a little bit this year.”

Then came a bullpen session in St. Louis in August. Buehler’s mechanics remained something of a moving target to be captured. His command was inconsistent. His stuff wasn’t that crisp. Each start marked a point of self-reflection.

“I think he was in the right place in the season and had the right scope to implement some of the suggestions,” assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness said.

That afternoon, Buehler tried an old mental cue with his lower half, emphasizing how he generated power as he came down the slope of the mound. That helped some.

Jack Flaherty, Buehler’s teammate, who had only been together a few weeks at the time, had a more pointed suggestion while watching the bullpen session.

“I just talked to him a lot and told him to figure it out,” Flaherty remembers. “Walker is a stallion in his own right. … He’s always been a stud and wanted to figure it out.”

The bullpen session hardly fixed all of Buehler’s problems. He had a 4.63 ERA in his last seven regular-season starts. He made the Dodgers’ postseason roster largely by chance, with enough small improvements that Los Angeles felt they could get more out of him in October.

“Not that I’ve set the world on fire since then,” Buehler said. “But at least my body often feels like it’s in the right position and has an idea where the ball is going.”

On Wednesday night, he rewarded the Dodgers’ patience. He resembled the pitcher the team assigned to start Game 163, a pennant clincher, this year’s division clincher, Game 6 of the 2020 NLCS and Game 3 of the 2018 World Series.

“Obviously he had to kind of reinvent himself,” Roberts said. “It’s easy to ride when the wind is at your back. Then he runs and rides really well.

“But when there’s adversity, you get kicked in the teeth and you lose confidence and then you pull back, come back and still persevere, that to me is something that I don’t think he ever had to do – outside of having surgery. To me that’s something that speaks to his character. … Looking at this in June or July, I don’t think anyone could have seen him in that position now. So it’s a credit to Walker.”

Four traffic-filled innings failed to revitalize a season or create a market for the 30-year-old right-hander on the cusp of free agency. But each subsequent elimination reaffirmed the one thing Buehler says he cares about.

“There’s never a moment that gets too big for him,” Muncy said. “There is never a situation that becomes too big for him. He is able to control everything. He was Walker Buehler tonight.

“There’s just something that throws him off balance,” Gavin Lux said. “I think he’s a better pitcher now than he was before. Just seeing how he mixes pitches and how he uses pitches and how those have changed was fun to watch him figure it out.”

“There are certain players who like to be in the spotlight and like to play in October,” Kiké Hernández said. “And these guys, I mean, I can attest to that. It doesn’t matter what the regular season looks like. When the time comes, we’ll start over. We start from scratch and take it game by game. … And this guy has proven year after year that when there’s a big game and the Dodgers need a win, he’s the guy to go to.”

He didn’t completely reinvent himself with one pitch. But he has shown enough adaptability to make evenings like this special.

“There are the stats and free agency and all that — but I want to have 25 people in the locker room that believe I’m giving us a really good chance to win,” Buehler said. “If I somehow managed to do that in our locker room, that’s probably what I’ll be most proud of when I’m done.”

(Photo by Walker Buehler: Wendell Cruz / Imagn Images)