Continues injuries have seemingly always prevented it from being the case, but the Los Angeles Dodgers once again are approaching having a surplus of starting pitchers.
It’s prompted some evaluation and forecasting of future roles, which potentially played a part in Dustin May being tabbed as the bulk pitcher to follow Shohei Ohtani in his most recent start.
Thus far the Dodgers have used Ben Casparius (three times), Justin Wrobleski (once), Sheehan and May (once each) as the pitcher to piggyback with Ohtani during his continued buildup process.
In May’s case, it also served as an opportunity to begin reducing his workload. It’s a process and strategy Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had hinted was on the horizon heading into the All-Star break.
May pitched 4.2 scoreless innings despite giving up five hits and walking three batters. He navigated the traffic in some part behind four strikeouts.
“I just trusted my stuff,” May said after the game. “There’s definitely been a lot of ups and downs this year. Just been trying to get some mechanical cues that I can lock down and figure some stuff out to be able to get more hitters out.
“I thought I was a little better tonight. There were some rocky spots, but overall I was able to find my groove whenever I lost it.”
May’s performance helped the Dodgers snap their three-game losing streak.
Dustin May back in Dodgers rotation
Despite some of May’s inconsistency as a starter, he’s back in the rotation — at least for one turn — when the Dodgers play the Boston Red Sox this weekend.
May is the listed probable to start the series finale at Fenway Park on Sunday. Emmet Sheehan is lined up to pitch Friday and Clayton Kershaw is the Dodgers’ probable for the middle game in Boston.
While May is getting another opportunity to start, his future role is far from solidified.
Ohtani is making progress toward providing expected length from a traditional starter, and Blake Snell is potentially returning next week.
It’s plausible May gets some sort of reprieve, perhaps in the form of a stint on the 15-day injured list, considering he has already set career highs in games (18), starts (17) and innings pitched (99).
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