Latest news with #DustinMay
Yahoo
a day ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Dodgers' Dave Roberts Makes Tough Dustin May Decision, Possibly Moving to Bullpen
Dodgers' Dave Roberts Makes Tough Dustin May Decision, Possibly Moving to Bullpen originally appeared on Athlon Sports. If the Los Angeles Dodgers find a way to get healthy after the second half, with indications suggesting they should, there could be a scenario where they have to move a starter to the bullpen. It remains uncertain what the Dodgers plan to do when everyone is healthy, but it'd be a good problem to have. It also wouldn't be too surprising to see the Dodgers add another starter, given the injuries they've faced. Los Angeles understands better than anyone that it can be faced with injuries at any moment, and it must be prepared to handle them. But for guys like Dustin May, it might require him to go to the bullpen. When recently speaking about it, Dave Roberts admitted that it's something that could potentially happen, but later added that, for now, he plans to keep him in the rotation at the start of the second half. 'I think right now, he's going to stay in the same role as a starter when we start the second half,' Roberts said, per Dodgers Nation. 'I know that Dustin's talked about it, we've talked about, at some point in time, giving him a little respite. I don't know if that's going to happen, when it's going to happen – when and if it's going to happen. 'The consistency of length has been good, but yeah, I think also there's still got to be a performance part, too, right? … That's something we're going to keep being mindful of. But I think him as a starter is how we're going to start the second half.' May has struggled a bit throughout the year, but his stuff is so good that it'd be tough to justify taking him out of his current role. However, he certainly needs to throw the baseball at a higher level if he wants to continue being a starter. May allowed seven earned runs in 4.2 innings against the San Francisco Giants on Friday, posting an ERA of 4.96 in the first story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 15, 2025, where it first appeared.
CTV News
5 days ago
- Sport
- CTV News
Shohei Ohtani to make next start Monday as Dodgers aim for longer outings from two-way superstar
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani pitches to a San Francisco Giants batter during the third inning of a baseball game in San Francisco on July 12, 2025. (Godofredo A. Vásquez / AP Photo) LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani will make his next start on the mound on Monday as the Los Angeles Dodgers' two-way superstar progresses toward longer outings after elbow surgery. He'll open with three innings against the Minnesota Twins in his sixth start before giving way to Dustin May, manager Dave Roberts said. Ohtani also pitched three innings in his last start at San Francisco last Saturday. He allowed one hit, struck out four and walked one on 36 pitches. The right-hander has a 1.00 ERA, having pitched nine innings total this season. Roberts said Friday that Ohtani will have a multi-inning partner for at least a few more starts. He didn't pitch at all last season, his first with the Dodgers. 'My assumption is that we get up to four innings and then probably a repeat of four,' Roberts said. 'At that point then it's probably a normal game.' The Dodgers begin the second half atop the NL West standings and optimistic about getting reinforcements to bolster their injury-riddled pitching staff. While Ohtani played in the All-Star game in Atlanta this week, Roki Sasaki (shoulder) worked out over the break. 'Everything I hear has been positive,' Roberts said. 'Hopefully, we can keep building him up and face some hitters and get him out there competing again.' Sasaki's velocity has reached 90 mph and 'that's pretty good intensity right there,' Roberts said. Blake Snell (shoulder) is set to make his third rehab start Sunday with Triple-A Oklahoma City. He'll pitch three innings with an eventual goal of going four innings. Beth Harris, The Associated Press
Washington Post
5 days ago
- Sport
- Washington Post
Shohei Ohtani to make next start Monday as Dodgers aim for longer outings from two-way superstar
LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani will make his next start on the mound on Monday as the Los Angeles Dodgers' two-way superstar progresses toward longer outings after elbow surgery. He'll open with three innings against the Minnesota Twins in his sixth start before giving way to Dustin May, manager Dave Roberts said.
New York Times
12-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
‘Came up a little short:' Dodgers drop seventh game in a row, longest streak since 2017
SAN FRANCISCO — For a week now, there has been no ritual of music for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Hushed, somber tones have been the soundtrack of the longest losing stretch that baseball's pillar of regular-season success has seen in recent memory. This time, at least, their bats showed signs of life. Advertisement The tying run made it as far as 180 feet from home plate before Will Smith chopped the double-play ball that squelched the rally. The result remained the same by Friday night's end. The Dodgers fell to the San Francisco Giants 8-7 for their seventh consecutive loss. There was no music in the visiting clubhouse at Oracle Park. No quick jokes or laughs. An L7 is only funny when followed by the word 'weenie.' It's the team's longest losing streak since 2017. Their National League West lead has shrunk from nine games to four in a week. The sky is not falling. But facing an old rival does little to jolt what should already be there in the midst of the team's worst stretch in eight years. 'Had a chance to win again,' Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. 'And unfortunately, came up a little short.' Some of the flaws in Friday's game were familiar. Dustin May has not missed a start after a star-crossed career full of injuries, but each start has resembled a ticking clock as to what inning the talented right-hander would lose command and get hit hard. He's struggled to dominate right-handed hitters like he has at his best, such as when he left a sinker out over the plate that Giants shortstop Willy Adames hit out of the deepest part of a cavernous Oracle Park. May couldn't mitigate his issues against lefties much better, leaving a two-strike fastball over the plate that Jung Hoo Lee hammered over Teoscar Hernández's glove in right for a two-run triple. Maybe a healthier option than Hernández, who is not 100 percent and dealing with a bruised left foot on top of it, makes that catch and saves those runs. It had a 20 percent catch probability, according to Statcast. A better pitch makes it a non-issue. An inning later, Dominic Smith launched a thigh-high fastball into the left field seats, threatening to turn the game into a rout. Advertisement 'Just got a little bit out of sync,' May said. He'd locked something in until he felt something off in his mechanics to start the fourth inning. He started the frame with two walks and six consecutive balls. 'Couldn't time things back up.' Through a career-high 94 1/3 innings, May has a 4.96 ERA. That's the tenth-worst mark in baseball. 'Not to make an excuse for him,' Roberts said of May, who has hardly pitched as he's endured multiple elbow surgeries and a life-threatening torn esophagus. 'But it's part of his path back and trying to fine-tune some things. And at times it's elite, it's commanded, and then other times, it kind of goes awry a little bit. And you give up free passes or make a mistake (in the) middle of the plate to give up slug, and so that's sort of what happened today.' The Dodgers can prioritize the long game. But winning now still matters for them. It arguably matters even more for May. If the Dodgers get healthy as they think they will, they'll have to have some tough conversations. May, a free agent at year's end, figures to be part of them. By the end of the fifth, they looked up at a 7-2 deficit. The Dodgers have constructed a lineup that, for months, has still made nights like that surmountable. They have spent the better part of the week looking dormant. Their superstars have slumped. Their supporting pieces haven't come to life. Throughout the last six games, they'd topped two runs in a game only once. The Dodgers still cracked to life against Logan Webb, who last month fed this lineup with a mouthful of cutters to great success. Hernández drove a fly ball towards the gap that Lee couldn't quite track down to bring home a couple of runs. Michael Conforto, amid his disastrous year, chased Webb when he smoked a sinker out over the center field fence to halve the Giants' lead. Advertisement Smith brought them even closer an inning later, piercing All-Star reliever Randy Rodriguez's armor for a run on a single up the middle. 'We just strung some hits together, something we haven't done in a while,' Mookie Betts said. 'Obviously, I know it sucks, but you have to try to take some positive out of it. At least we battled back.' There are no moral victories in cutting a deficit to a run, much less in a seven-game losing stretch. Betts fouled off a pair of wicked Camilo Doval sliders in the ninth before punching through a single to give his team a chance. Esteury Ruiz pinch-ran and swiped second. But after Freddie Freeman worked a four-pitch walk, Smith pounded a first-pitch sinker into the dirt. So went another loss, and another quiet scene that followed. 'Today we were able to string some hits together, put some innings together, but we just come up short,' Betts said.
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Dustin May struggles as Giants send Dodgers to a seventh consecutive loss
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, left, pulls starting pitcher Dustin May from the game in the fifth inning of an 8-7 loss to the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park on Friday night. (David Barreda / Los Angeles Times) The Dodgers finally looked like the Dodgers again on Friday night. Too bad it didn't happen until they were already down six runs. For the first time in a week, the highest-scoring offense in baseball finally rediscovered its high-flying form, handing San Francisco Giants ace Logan Webb his worst start all season while sending shivers up the spine of the orange-clad contingent at Oracle Park. Advertisement Read more: Shaikin: Dodger Stadium gondola closer to reality? Sacramento might help Team McCourt But by the time it happened, the club had already dug a hole too deep for even its star-studded lineup to climb out of, unable to completely erase an early six-run deficit in a 8-7 loss to their division rivals — sending the Dodgers to a seven-game losing streak that marks their longest skid since September 2017. 'I like the fight. I thought one through nine, there were good at-bats in there, scored some runs, had a chance to win again,' manager Dave Roberts said. 'And unfortunately, on the pitching side, we just couldn't prevent enough." Friday, of course, never figured to favor the Dodgers given the difference in caliber of the starting pitching matchup. On one side stood Webb, the crafty and relentless All-Star right-hander who has largely dominated the Dodgers in his seven-year career. Advertisement On the other was Dustin May, the once-promising Dodgers right-hander who has yet to realize his tantalizing potential in what has been his first fully healthy big-league season so far. Still, for a little while on a cold night along the San Francisco Bay, little separated the two sinker-ball specialists, the Dodgers and Giants locked in the kind of close contest that has been the hallmark of this rivalry in recent years. In the top of the third, Shohei Ohtani even put the Dodgers in front, splashing his NL-leading 32nd home run of the season into McCovey Cove beyond right field for only the eighth splash-down home run by a Dodger player in Oracle Park history. Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani tosses his bat after hitting a two-run home run in the third inning against the Giants on Friday. (David Barreda / Los Angeles Times) But eventually, May came unglued, giving up seven runs in less than five innings as the Giants surged to an 8-2 lead. And though the Dodgers (56-39) eventually got to within one, tagging Webb with a season-high six runs, they came up empty in their final couple trips to the plate, wasting plenty of positive subplots in another losing story. Advertisement 'Today we were able to string some hits together, put some innings together,' shortstop Mookie Betts said. 'But we just come up short." After starting his night with increased fastball velocity and ruthless assault of the strike zone, May lost his command in the fourth inning. Dodgers pitcher Dustin May delivers against the Giants on Friday. (David Barreda / Los Angeles Times) Rafael Devers walked on four pitches to start the inning. Matt Chapman received another free pass despite a mid-at-bat mound visit from catcher Will Smith. And with one out, Jung Hoo Lee laced a two-run triple over the outstretched glove of Teoscar Hernández, who returned to the lineup after missing the last four games with a foot contusion but still seemed hobbled while trying to track the ball down in the right-field gap. Advertisement 'Just got a little bit out of sync, couldn't time things back up,' May said of his delivery, which has teetered between flashes of dominance and stretches of frustration during his return from a second career elbow surgery. 'During my warm-up throws in the fourth, it felt a little off. Trying to get my foot down a little earlier didn't really help. That's been a cue. But yeah, it just went bad.' Things got worse in the fifth, when the Giants (52-43) plated five more while sending 10 batters to the plate. Dominic Smith led the inning off with a homer. May then gave up a single and two walks to load the bases. The Dodgers missed their chance to escape the inning, when Hyeseong Kim failed to turn a difficult but potential inning-ending double play quickly enough at second base. Advertisement May was replaced by Anthony Banda, who was greeted with another two-run triple by Willy Adames (who had already homered to open the scoring in the second inning) and a run-scoring infield single from Lee, who outraced Banda to first base to punctuate a painfully long inning. 'To win a big-league ballgame is tough, but you've still got to pitch well, you've got to catch it and you've got to take good at-bats,' Roberts said. 'If all three of those things don't line up in one night, it's hard to get a win.' Mookie Betts grimaces in pain after being hit by a pitch in the sixth inning against the Giants on Friday night. (David Barreda / Los Angeles Times) It was at that point, coming off a six-game stretch in which they'd scored 10 total runs, that the Dodgers' bats finally came to life. Advertisement In the top of the sixth, Hernández launched a two-run double that Lee couldn't quite corral on the run at the warning track, before Michael Conforto followed with a two-run homer that chased Webb and cut the deficit to two. In the seventh, the Dodgers struck again, when Betts slid into third after hitting another ball just beyond Lee's reach in center and later scored on Smith's RBI single. 'It's definitely more encouraging,' said Betts, who has been among the coldest hitters in the Dodgers lineup lately. 'I can't speak for everyone. But I haven't done anything this whole time … Just to get us going, get some hits there, that's the positive that you can take out of it." Read more: Shohei Ohtani has top-selling MLB jersey so far this season. Two other Dodgers rank in top four Advertisement That, however, was as close as the Dodgers got. Smith was left stranded to end the seventh. Kim's two-out double in the eighth was squandered. And, in the most frustrating of endings, a two-on, one-out opportunity in the ninth went by the wayside when Smith rolled into a double play. The division lead is down to four. And as the Dodgers continue to stumble toward the All-Star break, moral victories remain the only wins in sight. 'I know it sucks, but you have to try to take some positive out of it,' Betts said. 'At least we battled back." Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
