There are things to clean up, certainly.
But all things considered, Dustin May’s debut couldn’t have gone much better than it did on Thursday afternoon, Aug. 6 at American Family Field.
The Milwaukee Brewers downed the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-2, taking the final three games of the series while improving to a season best 29 games over .500 at 72-43. And May was in the middle of it all as the right-hander provided a quality start in just his third day in his new uniform.
May (6-7) scattered three hits, including a home run, allowed a pair of runs and walked three while striking out five over six innings and 97 pitches and ultimately emerged with his first victory since June 15 when he was still plying his trade for the St. Louis Cardinals.
BOX SCORE: Brewers 5,. Pirates 2
“It was definitely exciting,” May said. “Definitely had a little bit of rust to knock off; (eight) days since my last one. But it was good to get out there and compete and guys played great behind me and we scored some runs, so it was a great team win.”
Throwing to Gary Sánchez, May began his day by walking leadoff man Jake Mangum only to recover by striking out Brandon Lowe, Bryan Reynolds and Endy Rodríguez in succession.
He then watched the defense go to work behind him as Brice Turang made a spectacular leaping grab at second base and then doubled off Nick Gonzales at first to end a scoreless second and Garrett Mitchell ran down Henry Davis’s 109.5-mph missile that had an expected batting average of .730 off the bat in left-center for the second out of the third.
Holding a 2-0 lead entering the fourth, May surrendered a leadoff homer to Lowe then followed by walking Reynolds and allowing singles to Rodríguez and Spencer Horwitz, with Horwitz’s poke to center scoring Reynolds to tie things up at 2-2.
But Mitchell again picked up May, this time by uncorking a perfect throw to third to cut down Rodríguez trying to advance. A couple flyouts later and May was out of the inning having at least kept the Pirates from going in front.
“The defensive positioning was great,” he said. “There was a couple where I turned around and was like, ‘That’s going to be a hit,’ and they were right there, so that was cool to see.”
May threw a 1-2-3 fifth and after his offense tacked on a couple runs in the bottom of the fifth to give back the lead, he gutted his way through a sixth in which he walked Lowe to start but then got the dangerous Reynolds looking followed by a flyout and a lineout.
DL Hall, Aaron Ashby and Chad Patrick then finished up behind May with each throwing a scoreless inning.
Manager Pat Murphy circled the whiff of Reynolds as one of the game’s bigger plays, with May clipping the bottom of the zone with a 92.9-mph cutter for the called third strike.
“The 3-2 pitch to Reynolds, I think, was a turning point in the game,” he said. “It’s just beautiful to have that experience up there.”
May topped out at 99.1 mph on the radar gun and logged one more swing and miss than did all-star counterpart Braxton Ashcraft (11-10) but also threw 59 of his 97 pitches for strikes (61%), hit a batter and committed a balk.
He also termed the three free passes he issued “brutal.”
“Command was very scattery today,” May said. “It wasn’t as sharp as I’d like it to be, so we’ll get into that in the bullpen and work on a couple things, getting down the mound, and we’ll dial it in better for the next one.”
As the Brewers are wont to do, they tweaked May’s repertoire some in that he threw more cutters than anything else (35%, higher than his season average of 22%)
“I think it just was what was planned,” said May. “Fastball was hit-or-miss. Definitely could have mixed in a few more sinkers. But the cutter was planned, so just leaned on it.
“I know when I throw the cutter it’s a contact pitch. It’s not a super swing-and-miss pitch. So, being able to throw it and locate it in the zone up and down was good.”
Sánchez said he caught May off Milwaukee’s Trajekt machine that replicates every pitcher’s delivery on Wednesday to get an initial sense of how he throws.
“In the first inning, I’m kind of getting to know him out htere, getting to know his pitches,” he said. “I thought we had a good plan going into it and we were able to deviate from that plan a few times whenever we needed to. Continued talking to him throughout.”
Added May, who more often than not will be throwing to William Contreras moving forward: “I thought it was good. Definitely going to talk through some things, but broad spectrum, new team, first one out of the way, I thought it went very well.”
May displayed some of his trademark fiery temperament over the course of his afternoon as well.
“I like to embrace it. I like to let my emotions flow throughout the game,” he said. “I like to suck it all in and let it out whenever it’s needed.”
Overall, Murphy loved what he saw May’s first time out.
“Great indoctrination into our club,” he said. “For him to come out and make that statement, he did very well. Not as sharp as he can be, but made the big pitches.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: All things considered, it was a successful debut for Dustin May
Reporting by Todd Rosiak, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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By Todd Rosiak, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
