Similar to their first matchup in Spring Training, the Los Angeles Dodgers came away with a blowout win against the Colorado Rockies at Salt River Fields on Monday, completing a Cactus League sweep.
Dustin May logged his longest outing of the spring, tossing three innings of two-run ball with two strikeouts. It was his first appearance on the mound since throwing two scoreless innings out of the bullpen against the San Francisco Giants on March 2.
Despite having not pitched in a Major League game in almost two weeks, May kept active by pitching in a “B” game on a backfield at Camelback Ranch. The purpose was to iron out some issues with mechanics.
“Just be in the zone,” May said of his focus for the start and moving forward. “The first and third inning I felt like I did a pretty good job.
“Second inning I fell behind on a few batters and it kind of snowballed. Other than that, just trying to get ahead of guys and be able to put everything in the zone.”
May at times struggled to put batters away, but he didn’t let it get the best of him. “It’s just like body control and being able to know that I can do it,” he said.
“I know that I can. It’s just a matter of the execution of the pitch and how it feels out of the hand. Just got to get better repeating it.”
One positive takeaway from the outing was May’s confidence to throw breaking balls for strikes. “I feel comfortable with it. I just pulled a couple down in the second inning, but the shape and everything is right.
“I’ve just got to be able to put it in the zone. I’ve been working on it a lot this offseason and in bullpens and stuff. Just being able to put it in the zone early in counts, trying to get ahead of guys.”
Roberts thought May had excellent command of pitches
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts similarly felt May had good command of his pitches against the Rockies. “Just looking for him commanding the baseball. I thought the fastball command was good, I thought there were some good breaking balls in there,” Roberts said.
“The cutter, there were some good ones in there. It just didn’t kind of go left the way we like it to against the left-handed hitter, but the velocity was good.
“The ball is coming out really well. To get him through three, I thought was a positive for all of us. Talking to Dustin after, he felt good, so another good outing.”
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