Going into Friday night’s game, Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Walker Buehler was on the hot seat .

Whether he knew it or not, Buehler did his best to put the rumors of his demise aside, firing six shutout innings agains the San Diego Padres.

Buehler made a significant change to his pitch mix, using his four-seam fastball 47% of the time and generated a season high four-whiffs with this pitch. Against lefties, he used the pitch more than in any other start, throwing it 54% of the time. Coming into Friday, lefties had hit .373 against his cutter.

Coming into tonight, Buehler’s first pitch strike rate was just 63%. On Friday, he ran a 76% first-pitch strike rate, including two first pitch outs. Red Sox manager Alex Cora noted how important count leverage was in Buehler’s start.

“I thi

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