Dustin May took the mound for a team other than the Los Angeles Dodgers for the first time in his career when he started for the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday.
The final line wasn’t pretty for May. 3 2/3 innings pitched, three runs, six hits, four strikeouts and one walk. He also hit two batters. He also took the loss as the Royals won, 7-3. The line doesn’t tell the entire story of his Red Sox debut, though.
With the Dodgers, May used almost exclusively his sinker and sweeper against right-handed hitters. On Wednesday, he changed the mix and added a cutter. The three pitches were each used about one-third of the time.
The addition of the cutter paid dividends. He used it on the glove side to jump ahead of hitters, as well as generate two whiffs. It helped keep righties off his sinker, which he landed on the arm side consistently. His sweeper command to righties was inconsistent, but he was overall effective for most of the game against that side of the plate.
Against lefties, May slashed his sinker usage. Lefties were hitting .284 against it this season. As a result, May saved the pitch as a surprise two-strike offering and punched out one hitter with it. He increased his cutter usage to lefties as well, helping him get ahead of hitters consistently. He also located his four-seamer high consistently, but it only returned two whiffs on 23 pitches to left-handers.
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The changes seemed to be a step in the right direction, at least for the first three innings. May allowed one run in the third after losing Mike Yastrzemski after going up 0-2, but found a way out of the inning with only one run scored. Outside of the one run, May did a good job of hitting his spots and recording outs.
The fourth inning is where things took a turn. May hit Adam Frazier, but promptly picked him off. He then left sweepers over the plate in 0-2 counts to Jonathan India and John Rave. With runners on second and third, he threw a good 3-2 sinker to Kyle Isbel, but Isbel fisted up the middle to plate two runners.
Despite taking the loss, May passed the eye test to start his Red Sox tenure. He hadn’t pitched in over a week, and his stuff looked sharp. His two-strike execution wasn’t pristine, but the addition of his cutter helped him throw 72% strikes, well above his season rate of 62%.
In addition, about 75% of the balls he delivered missed high and to the arm-side, which suggests a mechanical issue. With more time in the organization, the Red Sox pitching team might be able to identify a way to clean that up.
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It wasn’t the best introduction to Red Sox Nation for the newest member of the rotation, but it was something to build on, and encouraging going forward.
