Dustin May's uneven season continues for Dodgers in critical start just ahead of deadline

New York Times

27-07-2025

BOSTON — On contact, Dustin May arched his head and back toward the sky in disgust. He knew he'd been had. The Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander's critical Sunday afternoon had come apart in a span of just three pitches in the fifth inning, silenced with an emphatic statement on a ball that Alex Bregman sent over the Green Monster. What looked to be a strong outing instead was just another frustrating one.
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This is how it's gone for May this season. His body has finally cooperated after years in the injury wilderness, as his first inning Sunday against the Boston Red Sox marked the first time in his career he's cleared 100 innings in a major-league season. The effectiveness has been there in tantalizing spurts. Sunday, it was a stretch of five strikeouts in a span of six batters almost immediately before it all fell apart in the fifth.
He left a cutter over the plate when he wanted to get it in on Abraham Toro, who singled. Dalton Rushing set up low and away for a first-pitch fastball to Roman Anthony. May left that over the plate, so the Red Sox rookie lofted a fly ball high off the 37-foot wall. Michael Conforto made a mess of it, getting too close to the wall, so the ball bounced over his head and Anthony wound up on third with a triple. Rushing set up away to start Bregman with a breaking ball. May's first pitch broke right onto Bregman's barrel instead. Bregman sent it an estimated 400 feet onto Lansdowne Street.
'It just sort of kind of opened up a little bit on him,' Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
The Red Sox wouldn't surrender the lead, knocking off the Dodgers 4-3. Los Angeles wasn't without chances to score — the Dodgers left the bases loaded in the third inning, two on in the fourth and stranded a season-high 13 hitters on base. They spoiled the best offensive day of Conforto's season. But May had a lead when the fifth began and a chance to rewrite the story of his season. Instead, it was more of the same.
'Just left too much stuff over the middle,' May said. 'Just not quality strikes. I felt good. Mechanics were in a good spot. Just didn't execute in the fifth.'
'He threw the baseball well,' Roberts said of May, who allowed four runs in five innings. 'The line score doesn't show that.'
Dustin May strikes out the side! pic.twitter.com/elUvKYQRK2
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) July 27, 2025
He needed this one to be better. Through 19 appearances this season, he has a 4.85 ERA. Among pitchers with at least 100 innings this season, that's 13th-worst in baseball. There's no good time to have a figure that high, but that is especially the case now for May.
He's a free agent at year's end. The Dodgers' rotation is getting healthy, with Blake Snell expected to rejoin the group next week in Tampa. Roberts has been candid that May is battling Emmet Sheehan for what is essentially one spot in the starting rotation. May shot down the question when asked if that entered his thinking.
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'It's up to them to go out there and pitch well and force our hand as far as decisions,' Roberts said Friday night. 'Ultimately, players make the decisions for themselves, right? And that's performance.'
Los Angeles has also been open to discussing May in trade discussions before Thursday's trade deadline, league sources said. May's stuff is still intriguing enough, and he could move to a starting pitching-starved contender in exchange for position player depth if a team talks itself into him. Or, he could move into the bullpen in hopes he can find something and bolster a group the team is looking to upgrade.
Either way, Sunday could have been an inflection point. The Dodgers still don't quite know what is next.
'I don't know yet,' Roberts said Sunday morning of what's next for May. The Dodgers have until Thursday to decide.
'We'll kind of push it down the line a little bit,' Roberts said. 'But in all honesty, things seem to change a lot in each week. So I think that right now I don't want to put anyone into a corner right now. We'll just kind of read and react after this start.'
Sunday did not mark a compelling argument in May's favor. His command wasn't sharp enough, with all three hits in the fifth inning coming on misses on pitches he was aiming to throw to his glove side. Even when he was effective in the middle innings, May's day came with warning signs: It took him 43 pitches to get his swing-and-miss when Jarren Duran half-swung at a sweeper for a strikeout. The spurt of dominance that followed was erased quickly.
'I feel like it's been like that for a lot of my outings,' May said. 'I feel like I get to a good spot, then I can't get through one inning. One inning blowup. It's not a fun feeling, but I know the good stuff is in there. It's just a matter of eliminating the one bad inning.'
Perhaps a day like Sunday could have shifted that narrative and some of his responsibilities along the way. Instead, May left Fenway Park with even more uncertainty.