Dodgers activate Walker Buehler, option Scott Alexander

The Dodgers activated Walker Buehler from the injured list to start Wednesday night against the Diamondbacks, after the right-hander missed a start with a blister on his right index finger.

Buehler was scratched from his start last Thursday in San Francisco with said blister, and was able to throw a 34-pitch bullpen session over the weekend with his finger uncovered, and came out of that unscathed.

“It’s just one of those things that the skin starts to kind of come apart, or you get that blister and once it gets to the sensitive part, then it could kind of get into a bad place,” manager Dave Roberts said on a conference call Tuesday. “We wanted to combat that, and right now, it’s kind of back to normal. We’re confident that, any pitch that he throws and going deep into a game, It shouldn’t be compromised.”

To make roster room, the Dodgers optioned Scott Alexander, who has struggled of late. The left-hander entered the ninth inning Tuesday with a 6-1 lead, but walked two batters and surrendered a two-run home run, pitching into a save situation for Kenley Jansen, who recorded the final out.

In his last eight outings, Alexander walked seven in seven innings, allowing 14 of his 34 batters faced to reach (a .412 on-base percentage), with only two strikeouts. Alexander leads the Dodgers bullpen with nine walks, despite being eighth among relievers in innings pitched.

Alexander had the third-highest average leverage index on the team, though that is buoyed somewhat by him pitching in two of the Dodgers’ three extra-inning games this season.

He still was effective at times, holding left-handers to just 1-for-18 (.056) against him. But with the three-batter minimum in effect this season, Alexander has faced right-handed batters more times (30 PA) than left (22 PA), and righties have hit .333/.448/.458 against him.