Lucas Giolito talks with commissioner Rob Manfred
PHILADELPHIA - The postgame press conferences for Walker Buehler have routinely been to the point, with most of the messages coming from the pitcher focused on his uneasy existence in the Red Sox's rotation.
Monday was a bit different for Buehler, both on the mound and in the visitors' clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park.
Going head-to-head with Phillies ace Zach Wheeler, Buehler turned in one of his best starts of the season, allowing just two runs over seven innings. It was an appearance that came on the heels of a solid six-inning, three-run win over the Rays.
It was an outing that elicited another round of honesty from Buehler, who offered up a realistic view of his current existence heading toward the trade deadline.
Buehler's message after his team's 3-2, 10-inning loss: There is still a way to go before definitively claiming a spot in the top tier of the Red Sox's rotation.
"I keep seeing all the stuff guys starting playoff games," he said. "At this point, I’m not a guy who can do that. My whole career, that’s what I have done and done really well. I think that’s kind of the goal, to stay in that conversation, to start playoff games when we get there."
While the about-face for Buehler may have started slightly before the All-Star break, the pitcher might have taken a significant step forward while on last week's mini-vacation.
Buehler ventured to the Maven Baseball Lab in Atlanta, a facility that is known throughout baseball as a place for big leaguers to use biomechanics to fine-tune their crafts.
"Just talking to some biomechanics people, a couple of different ones. I went to a place who kind of specializes in that in Atlanta. To be honest with you, just having different conversations with different people sparks things," he said. "I found a couple of cues that made everything feel a little bit more normal. Now it’s just honing that in with a little more balance to it."
The image of the Buehler going toe-to-toe with Wheeler was the image the Red Sox had been banking on when inking the 30-year-old to a deal slightly more than $21 million before this season.
Whether or not the showing alters the Red Sox's approach at the deadline remains to be seen, with Craig Breslow still seemingly looking for a complement to a group currently consisting of Garrett Crochet, Lucas Giolito, Brayan Bello, Richard Fitts and Buehler.
What it did was alter the conversation at least slightly, both for the team and the pitcher.
"At the end of the day, I had 16 or 17 or whatever it was that weren’t kind of what I want," Buehler said. "I’m not going to lay everything down and say I’m back after one. It definitely felt good for me, personally. But from the team’s perspective, we played a really good team, had a really good game against a really good team, against one of the best pitchers in the game. I think generally this is about as good as we can feel after a loss."