NEW YORK – The past two years have been filled with uncertainties for Walker Buehler.

When he tore his UCL for the second time during the 2022 season, questions immediately arose as to whether a man who was once one of baseball’s best young starting pitchers could return again. And with a team looking for reinforcements so quickly, could there be a place for him with the Dodgers if he returns?

But big games have a way of finding LA’s right-hander. And when everything is on the table and the Dodgers move their chips into the middle, Buehler has been the right man to bet on.

“That feeling of, there’s an organization relying on me today to win a playoff game, I think it’s kind of the weight that I like to feel,” Buehler said after his team’s 4-2 victory in Game 3 of the World Series. “It puts me in a place mentally that’s kind of hard to replicate.”

For the second time in as many starts, Buehler silenced a New York crowd. This time it was in the Bronx, and his performance Monday against the Yankees put LA on the brink of capturing this World Series.

Buehler’s first season back from his second Tommy John surgery was full of ups and downs. Struggling to find the strike zone, opponents stacking the baseball and struggling to assemble his arsenal sometimes left the Dodgers right-hander wondering if he still had the stuff to compete.

But in Game 3 against New York, Buehler not only had the stuff to compete, but he also had perhaps his best stuff, especially when it came to his fastball. He split the Yankees with his four-seamer, getting six whiffs and nine called strikes on the field and staying ahead of the hitters all night.

“It felt a little bit like the old days, at least a little bit closer,” Buehler said of his fastball, smiling. “I had a few swing-and-misses early in the game. That resets you mentally and you think, ‘I had a good day today.’

On Monday, Buehler didn’t allow a hit until Giancarlo Stanton’s double in the fourth inning. And when he needed it, he got help from his defense, with multiple defensive gems from Mookie Betts and a laser from Teoscar Hernández, which Stanton put out at home to end the fourth. Getting run support early – in the form of a two-run explosion in the first inning from Freddie Freeman – allowed the seven-year veteran to be aggressive all night.

“Tonight I thought his stuff was as good as it has been all year,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after the game. “I thought the fastball had life. The cutter was good. The curveball was good. He threw on all four quadrants. I kept those guys honest, kept them at a distance. … There was nothing more I could have asked of Walker tonight.”

Buehler, who will be a free agent at the end of the season, has struck out 11 batters in his past two starts, including five on Monday, and has thrived on the road in hostile environments in October. This continues the trend of Buehler shining in the postseason. After his five shutout innings against the Yankees in Game 3, he is 2-0 with a 0.50 ERA in three career World Series starts.

“I think if you took out that second inning (at San Diego in the NLDS) where we didn’t play good defense behind him, he would have thrown nothing but zeros in the postseason,” Roberts said.

Buehler admitted there is something about the postseason that helps him find that little something extra.

“As bold as it is to say, it takes adrenaline and stuff like that to really get me going mentally,” he said. “I wish I felt that all year… but there’s something different in the playoffs. And I think for me personally, the way I’m getting through these playoffs now is really encouraging, at least in the long run for me. Just because I know it’s in there, and I just need to unlock it a little bit.

Perhaps the biggest story of this World Series for the Dodgers was the performance of their starting rotation. The trio of Jack Flaherty, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Buehler seemed like the team’s biggest question this series, yet they still throw perhaps their best games ever in the team’s biggest moments.

Through three World Series games, the Dodgers’ three starters have thrown a combined 16 2/3 innings while allowing just three earned runs on eight hits. Flaherty, Yamamoto and Buehler have each gone at least five innings in their starts as well.

“I think there’s definitely been a lot said about the rotation given the injuries we’ve had in the postseason,” Roberts said. “But I think we just came together collectively because we felt like the 13 guys on our roster, as far as pitchers go, were going to do a good job of preventing runs.”

After Monday, the Dodgers pitchers only need 27 outs.