Boston Red Sox right-hander Walker Buehler knows he’s not playing up to par. In fact, he had an NFSW way of taking accountability for his shortcomings. After lasting just two innings and giving up seven runs in the Bronx against the New York Yankees, Buehler didn't mince words in his assessment of that outing and himself overall, per Christopher Smith of MassLive.
"This organization put a lot of faith in me this offseason and I've been f***ing embarrassing for us," Buehler said speaking to the media after the eventual 9-6 Red Sox loss.
It’s a step in the right direction that he’s understanding he’s not playing like a $21 million pitcher. The best thing he can do is acknowledge he’s not playing well. The next step is what he’s going to do about it.
Buehler has had a rough stretch the last 30 days. In the last month, he has just 15 strikeouts with an opposing batter average of .328. He has a 7.20 ERA and is winless in four starts, while also now posting a 5.18 ERA overall on the year. Since April, things have been downhill for him; the only way to describe his horrid stretch is (bleeping) embarrassing.
It doesn’t help that his latest meltdown came against a bitter rival in the Yankees. Fortunately, it’s a long season and a lot of time for him to improve. The Red Sox's struggles are far from his fault. But it doesn’t help that their ace isn’t throwing his stuff particularly well either.
Walker Buehler’s struggles highlight frustrating 2025 for Boston Red Sox
Before the sun even set in The Bronx, the Yankees had already put Buehler into a 5-0 hole in the first inning. He’d only make it two innings before getting yanked. This comes after Red Sox manager Alex Cora pleaded for his starters to go deep into games, taking less pressure off the bullpen.
Buehler looks far from his old self, who rose to stardom with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He can get back there and the struggling Red Sox have no choice but to hope he does. There’s enough time to get back on track, but first, Buehler must figure out what’s gone wrong.
While it’s not an eye-opening start to 2025, it wasn’t always this bad. In the first month of the season, Buehler won four of his five starts with a 3.68 ERA in five appearances on the mound. If you dive into his numbers a little bit more, you’ll see there’s no drastic difference between then and now.
Only now, he’s throwing fewer innings while still throwing a lot of pitches. In April, he had just two games with less than six innings pitched. In May and June, he hasn’t thrown more than five full innings. Which is part of the problem Cora mentioned has hurt this team.
Buehler needs to be better, but he's not the Red Sox's only disappointment
Buehler has to figure out how to improve, but his frustrations are indicative of how the Red Sox fan base feels on the whole. Now five games under .500, Boston has been among the biggest disappointments in baseball this season, despite additions like Buehler, Garrett Crochet, Alex Bregman and Aroldis Chapman.
With a long-awaited sense of aggression in adding improvements, fans believed that a playoff drought wouldn't extend to four years this season. So far, however, that's the way things have been trending. Buehler has been a letdown, Bregman has been injured, but core pieces from a season ago have drastically pulled back.
Buehler and the team in the clubhouse clearly feel those frustrations as well. The only way to get past them, though, is to simply be better, whatever it takes to do that.