It has been a long road back to the mound for Dustin May. The lanky right hander had to have Tommy John surgery in May of 2021, returning to the Dodgers in August of 2022. He ended up needing a second Tommy John in July of 2023, and when he was about to be able to rejoin the team a second time, he had to undergo surgery for a torn esophagus.
On Tuesday, he will make his long awaited reentry to the Dodgers rotation as he takes on the Atlanta Braves at home. May pitched 10 innings in Spring Training, closing it out strong. In his last five innings of work, he allowed only one hit and struck out six.
That could prove to be a good jumping off point for May, should he be able to carry that into the regular season. May piles up a lot of strikeouts when healthy, and the Braves tend to strike out a lot – they were struck out eight times by Tyler Glasnow in Monday night’s game.
The Dodgers will be facing Chris Sale, the reigning NL Cy Young winner. Sale allowed six hits and three runs in his first outing of the season against the San Diego Padres, striking out seven. Only Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Enrique Hernandez have fared well against Sale, with all other current Dodgers batting .250 or below lifetime against the lefty.
It remains to be seen if Freeman will return to the Dodgers lineup on Tuesday night. Monday it was revealed that he slipped while getting in to his shower, tweaking his surgically repaired ankle. He was out of the lineup Monday night, and manager Dave Roberts said his condition was day-to-day.
The Dodgers have only had their ‘normal’ lineup one out of the four home games to start the season stateside, with the top four being Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freeman, and Teoscar Hernandez, but that doesn’t much seem to matter. They are 6-0 on the season, and don’t look to be stopping anytime soon. That endeavor could be helped by the fact that the team across the diamond hasn’t won a game yet this season, and has no one hitting over the Mendoza line in their lineup.
A fun little piece of trivia – Will Smith has started this season with a hit in all six games. But, this is the third season in a row that Smith has done so. He is the first player in Dodgers history to record such an achievement.
The Braves will win their first game, and the Dodgers will lose their first game, but the Dodgers hope that those things don’t happen simultaneously. Game time is 7:10pm at Chavez Ravine
