BOSTON — On a day the Dodgers were facing one of their former longtime starters, Dustin May faced the prospect of potentially soon having the same distinction.
In the last week, trade rumors have started to swirl around May, the oft-injured right-hander who is finally healthy this season — but also having an up-and-down campaign in his final year before free agency.
It’s an idea that, on several levels, makes sense to explore: The Dodgers will soon have to demote someone from the rotation (likely May or Emmet Sheehan) to make room for Blake Snell’s return next weekend. And there are few foreseeable scenarios in which May would pitch big innings in the postseason, given his 4.85 earned-run average and the fact that, in his return from a 2023 elbow surgery this year, he is well past his previous career-high for innings pitched.
May hardly seemed surprised to see his name mentioned as possible trade bait in multiple reports this week; having long ago grown accustomed to such speculation during his rise as a top pitching prospect.
“Shocker,” he deadpanned earlier this weekend. “It’s there every year. It’s not anything new.”
And, while it’s doubtful he alone would net much of a significant return as a rental player who has posted below-league-average production, potential Dodgers trade partners have dedicated scouting attention to him recently, according to a person with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly.
It all made Sunday’s start, against former Dodgers rotation-mate and current Boston Red Sox right-hander Walker Buehler, a pivotal one for the 27-year-old May — providing him one last chance to try and stay in the rotation, and the Dodgers’ front office one more data point to evaluate ahead of the deadline.
The result: A disappointing five-inning, four-run start in the Dodgers’ 4-3 loss against the Red Sox, with May largely cruising through the first four innings before getting ambushed in a three-run fifth.
What comes next remains wholly unclear.
“We’ll kind of push it down the line a little bit,” manager Dave Roberts said before the game when asked about the team’s plans for May. “In all honesty, things seem to change a lot each week. So I think that right now I don’t want to put anyone into a corner. We’ll just kind of read and react after this start.”
For a while on a gloomy Sunday afternoon that started with a 40-minute rain delay, May out-pitched Buehler in the latter’s first start against his old team.
Buehler issued three walks in the third, including one to Freddie Freeman with the bases loaded to score a run. He gave up a home run to Michael Conforto (who also had two doubles, but two misplays in left field) to lead off the fourth, before later walking Miguel Rojas (who reached base all four times he came up) and giving up an RBI single to Mookie Betts (making his first start of the weekend at his old home stadium).
May, meanwhile, settled down after giving up a quick run in the first, retiring nine in a row — including five on strikeouts — between the second and fifth innings.
But with one out in the fifth, Abraham Toro singled, Roman Anthony hit an RBI triple on a shallow fly ball that richoceted off the Green Monster, and Alex Bregman flipped the game with a two-run homer, turning the Red Sox’s once 3-1 deficit to the Dodgers into a sudden 4-3 lead.
From there, the Dodgers (61-45) squandered every chance they had to answer back against Boston (57-50). Rojas and Conforto (twice) were stranded after doubles in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings. They saw a two-on, one-out threat in the eighth extinguish when Teoscar Hernández lined into an inning-ending double-play at second base, where Ceddanne Rafaela stretched to make the catch before beating pinch-runner Hyeseong Kim to the bag with a dive. They again had a runner at second in the ninth, only for Tommy Edman to ground out and end the game.
The missed opportunities — the Dodgers went one for 11 with runners in scoring position and left 13 men on base — left May on the hook for the loss, dropping him to 6-7.
Whether or not it will be his last start, or outing of any kind, in a Dodgers uniform will remain in question until the trade deadline at 3 p.m. PDT Thursday.
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