KANSAS CITY, Mo. — By the most basic measures, Dustin May’s season has been a success. He has returned from two surgeries – one on his elbow and one in a life-threatening emergency – to give the Dodgers innings, more innings than he has ever pitched in a season before.
They haven’t always been good innings, though.
Undercut some by his defense, May struggled through four innings on Friday night, surrendering leads in two of them before calling it a night. The Dodgers kept going, grabbed a third lead and never let go of that one on their way to a 5-4 victory over the Kansas City Royals.
Fresh off a sweep of baseball’s worst (the Colorado Rockies), the Dodgers handed the sinking Royals their sixth loss in a row and 14th in their past 19 games.
Shohei Ohtani gave the Dodgers their first lead of the night when he led off the game with a 429-foot home run into the right-field fountains. It was Ohtani’s 29th home run of the season, eighth to lead off a game.
May gave it right back in a meandering 30-pitch first inning that didn’t really get started until there were two outs. That’s when May gave up a double to Maikel Garcia, walked Vinnie Pasquantino and gave up a single to Salvador Perez. Garcia ran through a stop sign from his third-base coach and scored when left fielder Kiké Hernandez’s throw went to the backstop.
Max Muncy got the lead back for the Dodgers with a two-run home run in the second inning. The homer was Muncy’s fourth in the past four games and 13th in his past 49 games after hitting none in his first 28 games of the season.
But May’s second inning was just as problematic as his first – thanks in part to right fielder Teoscar Hernandez.
May walked John Rave to start the inning. He stole second base then moved to third on a ground out. No. 9 hitter Kyle Isbel drove a liner to right field that Hernandez coasted back on. It went over his head for a double, allowing Rave to score.
When May struck out Jonathan India it could have been the end of the inning. Since it wasn’t, Bobby Witt Jr. stepped in and clubbed a two-run home run.
May was gone by the time the Dodgers got the lead back in the fifth inning. It was the first time this season May (whose 82⅓ innings pitched are second on the team to Yoshinobu Yamamoto) failed to complete at least five innings. And it left him with a 4.68 ERA that might not be enough to maintain his spot in the rotation if the Dodgers ever get healthy.
Kiké Hernandez drew a walk to start the fifth-inning rally and scored on a triple by Ohtani. Mookie Betts drove Ohtani in to give the Dodgers their third lead of the night.
The Dodgers’ bullpen maintained that one-run lead over the final five innings. A bucket brigade of Luis Garcia, Lou Trivino, Anthony Banda, Alex Vesia and Tanner Scott had the tying run on base in every inning. Scott outdid them all, loading the bases with one out in the ninth on a single, walk and bloop single. He got Jac Caglianone to ground into a game-ending double play that included a nice pick by first baseman Freddie Freeman on a one-hop throw from Betts.
More to come on this story.
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