Hernández: The Dodgers hope Walker Buehler can pull off the impossible, but he’s struggling
They can’t afford to keep sending Walker Buehler to the mound. They can’t afford not to either. “Honestly,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “we don’t have another alternative right now.” The Dodgers are in a prison of their own making, their harebrained plan to turn their rotation into a nine-figure medical experiment backfiring to such a degree that it has forced them to depend on a pitcher attempting a comeback of historic proportions. Nathan Eovaldi of the Texas Rangers and Jameson Taillon of the Chicago Cubs are the only starting pitchers known to undergo second Tommy John surgeries and return to their previous performance levels. Buehler’s return from a similar procedure has taken a more conventional form, with the Dodgers’ former No. 1 starter posting a 6.09 earned-run average in 10 starts. His most recent start looked like more of the same, as he pitched four laborious innings in a 6-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners. Against the team with baseball’s lowest batting average and highest strikeout rate, Buehler was charged with three runs and seven hits. He struck out only one batter, rookie infielder