Dodgers fans – and the entire baseball world – held their collective breaths on Saturday evening as soon-to-be (on September 6) 25-year-old right-hander Dustin May made his first major league pitch since May 1, 2021; this following his May 12, 2021 Tommy John surgery.

It took but two dozen pitches for them – and the entire baseball world – to breathe a collective sigh of relief, as the Justin, TX native and Dodgers third round draft pick in 2016 out of Northwest High School in Justin flat out dominated the Miami Marlins in front of a sold out Dodger Stadium crowd of 51,813.

“That first inning, I think that we all saw emotions and just kind of [him] losing command a little bit there,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of May, following his team’s 7-0 pounding of the NL East fourth place Marlins. “But just to show his resolve, to bear down, make pitches, get out of that inning scoreless, and then after that, it just felt like he just continued to get better as the start went on.”

A lot better.

“Super exciting,” May said of his first MLB start in nearly 16 months, this after making six minor league rehab starts. “Excited to be back, and I’m just glad to get the first one out of the way and know that the first one’s behind me, and that I came out of it healthy and strong and ready for my next one.”

May finished his night pitching five scoreless innings, during which he allowed only one hit – a first-inning single to right by Marlins third baseman Joey Wendle to leadoff the game – while walking two and striking out eight, doing so on 71 total pitches, of which 48 were strikes.

When asked if he campaigned with Roberts to go back out and pitch the sixth, May answered with a smile, “I asked, but it was a hard ‘No’.”

“That’s just how good he is,” Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes told reporters postgame. “He’s throwing a 99 [mph] sinker … then he’s got that slider that’s just kind of knee-buckling, at times. He mixed in some changeups, too. He has a lot of weapons now. Obviously a great competitor, and he’s really hard to square up.”

Of course, you don’t win ballgames on just good (great) pitching alone, and May got some tremendous run support in his post-Tommy-John-surgery MLB debut – seven runs on (then) eight hits that included three-run home runs by Dodgers designated hitter Will Smith in the bottom of the first inning, and another by Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner in the bottom of the third. The Dodgers other run came on a RBI single by Dodgers All-Star first baseman Freddie Freeman during that explosive third inning.

“We got a lot of great guys on this team and a lot of guys to pick each other up and everybody else,” May said of his teammates. “So I’m just going to go out and do my thing and no reason to put extra pressure [on myself].”

Welcome back, Code Red!

Play Ball!

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