LOS ANGELES — The role of an ace comes with myriad responsibilities.
Opening day starts. Playoff outings. And, over the course of a season, the need to occasionally serve as a stopper for a pitching staff, putting an end to rough patches in a campaign before they become all-out slumps.
That’s what Walker Buehler did for the Dodgers on Sunday.
With his team coming off three losses in its previous four games, Buehler wasn’t dominant against the Detroit Tigers. He gave up six hits. He dealt with traffic all day. He retired the side in order only once.
But he was effective anyway, pitching five scoreless innings to help the Dodgers win, 6-3, and take two out of three games against the Tigers this weekend at Dodger Stadium.
There were other contributors to Sunday’s victory. Freddie Freeman had two hits and an RBI. Trea Turner, Will Smith and Cody Bellinger also picked up RBIs. The Tigers committed a couple costly errors, too, leading to two unearned runs.
But Buehler was the biggest factor, following up his first big league shutout against the Arizona Diamondbacks last week by recording consecutive scoreless starts for only the fourth time in his career.
The right-hander had to work early. After walking Robbie Grossman to lead off the game and deflecting an Austin Meadows comebacker for an infielder single two batters later, Buehler fanned Miguel Cabrera with a cutter (one of nine whiffs he got with that pitch Sunday) and induced a pop out from Harold Castro to end the inning.
The Tigers (7-14) loaded the bases in the second on two singles and a hit-by-pitch, but Buehler escaped by striking out Javier Báez on a late-sweeping slider.
In the fourth, Tucker Barnhart and Akil Baddoo both reached on softly-hit infield singles before Buehler again tightroped out of the inning, rolling Eric Haase into an inning-ending double-play in the next at-bat.
As he walked back to the dugout, Buehler slapped his glove and pumped his fist in relief.
The fifth inning was Buehler’s best, sandwiching strikeouts of Báez and Cabrera around a pop out to complete his day after 92 pitches. Buehler now has a 2.12 ERA through five starts this season.
At the plate, the Dodgers (14-7) also had to grind out runs Sunday.
They strung together three opposite-field singles in the first inning, the latter an RBI base hit from Smith in his first game this season as designated hitter.
In the second, Hanser Alberto and Gavin Lux also went the other way with singles before Tigers third baseman Jeimer Candelario committed a throwing error, double-clutching a grounder before firing wide to first to allow a run to score.
Freeman and Trea Turner followed with RBIs in the next two at-bats — Freeman an opposite-field double, Turner a run-scoring groundout (one of four outs he made Sunday, snapping his 39-game on-base streak).
From there, the Dodgers were kept quiet by Tigers starter Eduardo Rodriguez until the sixth, when Chris Taylor singled, Bellinger snapped an 0-for-21 skid with an RBI double down the right-field line, and Lux hit a bouncer that Báez misplayed at shortstop to let another run cross the plate.
The Tigers tacked on a couple runs late. Cabrera hit a two-run home run off Phil Bickford in the eighth. Candelario went deep for a solo home run in the ninth against Justin Bruihl.
Even after closer Craig Kimbrel came into the game, they got the potential tying run to the plate with two outs in the ninth.
But it proved to be too little, too late. Buehler had dropped the Tigers in too deep a hole. He made sure the Dodgers recent mini-skid went no further.
