Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
August 2nd marks the second game of a four-game series at Dodger Stadium against the Padres, but understandably all anybody cared about is the debut of prized prospect Dustin May.
The Dodgers ended up falling to the Padres by a 5-2 score, but May was actually rather impressive for the most part, which is honestly the most important thing.
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May seemed understandably pumped up and it showed early as his command was a bit all over the place. However, it was also clear why he was so highly touted, as he was throwing 95-97 mph sinkers with a ton of late movement.
May surrendered an unearned run in the 2nd after he gave up a single, a throw from Tyler White at first on a potential double-play ball hit the runner for an error, and then another single scored a run to make it 1-0.
Eric Lauer started opposite May and after three perfect innings, Max Muncy‘s one-out single broke that up. Then with two outs, Cody Bellinger ended any thoughts of a shutout with his major-league leading 36th dong of the year to make it 2-1 in a flash.
0 to 💯, real quick. pic.twitter.com/xwiYibNY6j
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 3, 2019
After being amped up for his debut, May seemed to tire late and also was going through the order for the third time. With one down, he surrendered three singles in a row for a run, and then with two down gave up a ringing double off the wall in center for two more.
That was the end of his day, and he ended up throwing 97 pitches in 5.2 innings. May gave up four runs (three earned) on nine hits, though eight of those were singles. He also struck out three and walked none. Hard not to see it as a promising debut.
Also promising? He seems awkward as all hell, which should be fun.
— Daniel Brim (@DanielBrim) August 3, 2019
One of these games he’s gonna end up swinging from out of the box. pic.twitter.com/0vTxzUmIS6
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) August 3, 2019
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) August 3, 2019
Pedro aez entered in relief and got out of the 6th without any further mess. He could not repeat the feat in the 7th, however, as he surrendered a double and then a two-out single to make it 5-1 before getting out of the inning. Baez struck out three in his short time, but the two hits strung together cost him.
In the 8th, Casey Sadler continued his impressive year. He allowed two singles and a walk, but worked out of trouble thanks to Will Smith throwing a runner out and then got a strikeout to escape the jam. Best reliever ever, IMO. (Until he’s not.)
Yimi Garcia got the 9th in what is looking more and more like the path to end of his Dodgers career, and he gave up a double but got a scoreless frame after two strikeouts.
Of course, the problem for the game was the offense, as Lauer and the Padres pen shoved. They limited the Dodgers to four hits and no walks, being fortunate to even getting two runs across the plate.
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Oh yeah, Will Smith did this.
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The Dodgers are now 72-40 on the year.
They’ll do it again tomorrow night on MLB Network at 3:10 PM HST/6:10 PM PST/9:10 PM EST with Walker Buehler facing Cal Quantrill.
