At a time when a starting pitcher throwing a complete game is now as rare as a starting pitcher throwing a no-hitter once was, a starting pitcher tossing four innings – even in a Spring Training game – is now (and please pardon the cliché) the equivalent of being ‘in mid-season form.’

But if being ‘in mid-season form‘ is actually a thing, then 25-year-old Dodgers right-hander Dustin May is very much ‘in mid-season form.’

In only his third appearance of the Spring (second start), the extremely popular Justin, TX native and Dodgers third-round draft pick in 2016 out of Northwest High School in Justin went 4.0 innings against the Cincinnati Reds at Goodyear Ballpark on Sunday afternoon, allowing no runs and only two hits (both singles), while walking one and striking out seven, to earn his second win of the Spring (against no losses) and the Dodgers winning their eighth game (with four losses) 8-1 over the Reds.

“I felt really good today. I was locating everything when I needed to locate it,” May said, following his excellent outing. “The slider was good, the two-seam (fastball) was good, the change-up was pretty good, as well. I was pretty confident with all the stuff today,” May added.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts very much concurred.

“I thought Dustin was really good out of the stretch. I thought he was varying his time, he did a really nice job holding the baseball,” Roberts told SportsNet LA’s Kirsten Watson postgame. “I thought just the command in the zone, I thought the breaking ball today was really good for swing-and-miss, for strikes. The cutter’s always in-play.

“He got stressed one inning, thought he was getting a little bit squeezed (by the umpires), but he got out of it and came back and threw four innings, so really a good day for Dustin,” added the Dodgers skipper.

As Dodgers fans know, May underwent Tommy John surgery in May of 2022 and appeared in only six games following the procedure and lengthy recovery period, going 2-3 with a 4.50 ERA in those six games (all starts) in his combined 30.0 post-Tommy-John innings pitched.

“I would say that right now is probably the closest I’ve been to, like, pre-surgery, like, feel-wise, so I’m in a pretty good spot right now,” May answered, when asked where he’s at post-surgery.

May is definitely ‘in mid-season form‘… in March.

Play Ball!

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