Dustin May makes his triumphant return as Dodgers extend perfect start to season

Dustin May closed his eyes, took a breath and held his head suspended toward the heavens.

For a brief moment, shortly before he began warming up for the first inning on Tuesday night, the Dodgers pitcher seemed to absorb the significance of his milestone moment — reflecting one last time on the 685-day journey that brought him there.

Not since May 17, 2023, had May last stood atop the Dodger Stadium mound. That day, he suffered an elbow injury that led to a flexor tendon surgery and Tommy John revision, the second major arm procedure of his young MLB career.

During the 22 months that followed, the hard-throwing right-hander endured a rehab process of uniquely difficult circumstances, getting close to a return midway through last season before a freak accident at dinner last July forced him into emergency, and season-ending, surgery to repair a frightening esophagus tear.

As May finally worked his way back to full strength this spring, the experience gave the 27-year-old renewed perspective. He was no longer a promising young prospect. He was unable to contribute to the Dodgers’ 2024 World Series championship.

But after so much time away, and such a scary medical saga last summer, he was simply grateful to once again be back on the rubber.

And in the Dodgers’ 3-1 win against the Atlanta Braves — one that extended their perfect start to the season to 7-0 — he marked his long-awaited return with an emotionally stirring performance.

In five innings Tuesday, May allowed just a single unearned run and a solitary second-inning single as his only hit. He struck out six batters. He escaped a couple crucial jams. And most notably, where he once operated with a fiery, boisterous in-game mound presence, he did it all with a calmer, more poised pitch-by-pitch demeanor — beginning a new chapter in his career with newfound maturation.

“As scary as it was, I think it put some things in perspective for him,” assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness said of May’s nearly two-year absence before first pitch. “We’re just excited and happy that he’s OK. And are pumped to see him pitch.”

Dodgers coaches were once expecting May to return during the second half of last season. In the first week of July, they were mapping out his impending minor-league rehab assignment in pitching department meetings.

But, days away from returning to live game action, May went to dinner in Arizona on July 10 and tore his esophagus on a bite of a salad that got lodged in his throat. That night, he went to the hospital and was rushed into surgery.

“I probably wouldn’t have made it through the night if I didn’t have it,” May recalled doctors telling him of the surgery, while recounting the ordeal for the first time this spring. “It was definitely a life-altering event.”

At the time, the Dodgers were on a road trip to Philadelphia and Detroit. And as coaches started getting early information of what had happened to the pitcher, they almost couldn’t believe the gravity of the situation.

“We have a message [chat] with medical updates, and got a thing saying, ‘Hey, he had a choking incident. He choked on some salad,’” pitching coach Mark Prior said. “Everybody’s like, ‘Huh? OK, that doesn’t sound great.’ But then we learned, ‘Oh no, it was an emergency surgery.’ We didn’t hear about that for a couple days.”

“It was crazy,” McGuiness added, particularly shocked upon learning it’d been caused by a salad. “Super scary initially.”

When the Dodgers next saw May during a road series in Phoenix a couple months later, the pitcher was back on his feet, and in the early stages of a recovery process that prevented him from lifting anything heavier than 10 pounds until after the season.

But still, the already lanky right-hander looked concerningly skinny from the liquid-only diet he was forced to adopt in the wake of his surgery. And when coaches asked about the scar from his procedure, he lifted his shirt to show a long vertical incision running up the length of his chest.

“It almost looked like an open-heart-type surgery,” Prior said. “So to see where he’s at now, it’s pretty incredible.”

Indeed, despite not returning to full strength until around the turn of the New Year, May showed up to spring training in surprisingly impressive shape. From the outset of camp, he emerged as a front-runner for the No. 5 spot in the team’s opening day rotation. And as he kept ramping up over the course of the preseason, the team noticed his altered approach to the game.

Where he once tried to overpower opposing hitters with an upper-90s fastball, May focused on improving his command and maintaining consistent control of his arsenal. Rather than throwing at “full max effort all the time,” McGuiness said, he started “pitching efficiently at a good effort level, without blowing it out every single throw.”

“He can tap into that bigger velo when he needs it,” McGuiness added. “But [without it], he can actually kind of move the ball around, command it a little better.”

It was a dynamic May put on full display in his return Tuesday night.

Where his fastball and two-seamer once averaged around 97 mph, they each dropped to the 95 mph range against the Braves. It didn’t stop May from still walking three batters, and throwing only 46 strikes in his 81 pitches. But it helped him execute in the most crucial situations, like when he stranded two aboard in the second inning after Mookie Betts’ throwing error at shortstop led to his lone unearned run, or when he got ahead of Nick Allen with two strikes in the top of the fifth to set up his sweeper for an inning-ending double-play.

The other big change on Tuesday — in a game the Dodgers came back to win late with the help of Betts’ go-ahead two-run home run in the sixth inning off reigning Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale — was with May’s emotional state.

Instead of cursing and screaming every time his adrenaline surged, the now sixth-year big-leaguer kept a cooler head. After striking out the side in the first, he simply skipped his way back to the dugout. In moments of frustration, he did little more than crane his neck.

It was all reflective of the long road May had traveled to get back to this stage, and the adversity-hardened mindset he was forced to evolve along the way.

“It’s kind of really made him appreciate taking the mound, being active in the big leagues,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Just like all things, as you get different experiences, you kind of have a different perspective.”

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