Steve Webb
CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — In the words of noted baseball philosopher David Vassegh, “Holy Crap!”
Dustin May made his long-awaited return to the big leagues on Saturday and it couldn’t have gone any better. After pitching out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the first, May was unhittable. He retired the last 13 Marlins he faced and went five strong innings and get his first win in over a year. The offense showed up big time, and jumped all over the Marlins’ rookie starter Bryan Hoenig and the Dodgers coasted to a 7-0 win to secure the series win.
May survives a shaky first
It’s only natural that the nerves would be working overtime as Dustin May took the mound for the first time in fifteen months. And it certainly seemed that way on Saturday night. May’s stuff was looking good, but he was having command issues the entire first frame. The leadoff hitter, Joey Wendle, found a hole in the defense and got on board with a single. Then, May seemed to settle in and he struck out two straight.
But just as quickly, he seemed to un-settle in and walked two straight Marlins on eight straight balls. Now with the bases loaded, May found himself in a jam mostly of his own making. However, a couple of nasty sinkers to Nick Fortes got him back on track and two pitches later he was back in the dugout with a third strikeout and zero on the scoreboard.
Will Smith homer puts the Dodgers up 3-0
After a fairly anemic last couple of games for the offense, it was almost as if May’s Dodger teammates were going to do their utmost in this one to make sure that Code Red had a comfortable outing. Which got considerably easier with the game-time decision to start righty Hoenig, who was making his major league debut. And to be quite honest, the Dodgers gave the youngster a rather rude welcome to the MLB life.
After a Mookie Betts groundout to leadoff the game, things started falling their way very quickly. Trea Turner hit a bleeder down the third base line that doinked off the bag for an infield single. Then, on the next pitch Freddie Freeman lined another single to right field. And that brought up Will Smith, whose game-winning fielder’s choice in Friday’s game will probably not make his 2022 highlight reel. However, in his next at-bat, he did that measly ground ball a good deal better. After watching a sinker sail wide for ball one, Smith got the same pitch, but this time it was out over the plate. Smith crushed the ball and sent it deep to left field. 402 feet later and it was 3-0 Dodgers.
JT jack makes it 7-0
After a quiet second inning from both teams, the Dodgers exploded again in the bottom of the third. With top of the order back up, the Dodgers got right at it. Mookie Betts went the other way for a single and took second when Trea Turner got his second infield single of the evening (he’s good at that sort of thing). That put RISP for Freddie Freeman, which is sort of like begging the guy to hit the ball. Which Freddie promptly did, going opposite field and banging a run-scoring single into left.
Will Smith came to the plate, but struck out this time around, but that didn’t stop the Dodgers. The next hitter, Justin Turner, decided that if Smith wasn’t going to jack another one, somebody ought to do it. So on a 0-1 pitch, Turner turned on an low and in sinker and blasted it to left. No nacho splashdown this time, but a homer nevertheless. It was now 7-0 Dodgers and the home team was rolling.
May exceeds all expectations
Going into this game, manager Dave Roberts was busy downplaying expectations. In pre-game interviews, he said that he wasn’t going to focus on results, just looking for 5 innings and 75 pitches. Well, they got that. But wow, did they get that. After the rough start to his outing, May decided he’d had just about enough of that foolishness.
May proceeded to be perfect the rest of the way. He retired the final thirteen Marlins he faced and barely broke a sweat doing it. All his elite stuff was working to perfection. And he continued his insane strikeout pace that he’d started in triple-A this year. After striking out 33 in his rehab starts, May got all kinds of swings and misses on the way to nine strikeouts. In all it was 71-pitch night for May, with him landing 48 of them for strikes. But, if you toss out the eight straight balls in the first, May threw 92% of his pitches on Saturday for strikes. Which seems pretty, pretty, pretttty good. Code Red’s final line for this remarkable return: 5.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 9 K.
Lots of traffic, but no more runs the rest of the way
With the outcome of the game no longer in doubt, the rest of the game looked a bit like a late-March Spring Training game. Starters were getting pulled. Hanser Alberto was playing first. Everybody was just coasting. The Dodgers loaded the bases a couple of times, but nothing came of it. Cody Bellinger missed a grand slam by about a foot in the bottom of the 7th, but the Dodgers had to settle for the 7-spot in this one.
After May’s exit, it was up to the bullpen to take this one to the house. And they did it in the manner that we’re accustomed to seeing from them. The Dodger pen gave up a couple of hits but got four scoreless innings out of Ferguson, Martin and Bickford. The bullpen, with the notable exception of the closer, has been rock solid all year, and is low-key a big reason for the Dodgers’ historic pace. When Austin Barnes squeezed Phil Bickford‘s final strike in the ninth, it was the perfect ending to a perfect night.
Alcantara shows his wares on Sunday
Other than the May start, perhaps the pitching performance that most folks are looking forward to in this Marlins series is coming up on Sunday. Cy Young candidate Sandy Alcantara will be throwing for the visitors, and the Dodger hitters will be sure to be gunning to inflate that ERA a bit. On the other side of the scorecard will be Ryan Pepiot, looking to bounce back from a disappointing start in Milwaukee. Pepiot must be getting the short straw. His last start was against Brewers flame thrower Brandon Woodruff. Sorry, Ryan. Good luck with that. Game time, 1:10 pm.
Cans of Corn…
- Dustin May. Just wow.
- Trea, JT, and Freddie all had two-hit nights.
- JT’s homer was his first since July 7th.
- Game time was 2:39!
