ARLINGTON, Texas — Coronations do not do subtlety. They are as much an in-your-face proclamation of status as the 12,000 diamonds George IV ordered embedded in his crown for his extravagant coronation in Westminster Abbey in 1821. The baseball equivalent of such a coronation was the in-your-face fastball Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler wielded Friday night in World Series Game 3 to turn the Tampa Bay Rays into his serfs.
Hail, hail! Buehler, 26, is the best young pitcher in baseball, and certainly the No. 1 choice from the twenty-something set you would pick if you could have any such pitcher to win a big game.