HOUSTON — In his first two starts with the Red Sox, Dustin May has displayed visible emotion after recording inning-ending strikeouts.
“I definitely try to ride the highs,” May said. “I’ve had a lot of lows this year. So whenever I do have the good moments, I try to let my brain know that, ‘Hey, you got it. It’s still in here, for sure.’”
May dominated the Astros on Tuesday, pitching 6 scoreless innings with five hits, one walk, and eight strikeouts. Boston won 14-1 over Houston at Daikin Park.
The fired-up 27-year-old righty shouted and clapped his pitching hand into glove as he walked off the mound in the second inning after striking out Houston’s Jacob Melton looking.
“I haven’t had a good one in a minute, so this was huge,” May said.
Boston acquired May from the Dodgers at the July 31 deadline for prospects James Tibbs III and Zach Ehrhard.
He has experienced a difficult past two years. He missed all of 2024 due to a esophagus problem that required emergency surgery.
May, who has had two Tommy John surgeries, hasn’t exactly pitched well in his return to the mound this season. He has a 4.67 ERA in 21 outings (20 starts).
Tuesday’s win marked May’s fourth career start going 6 scoreless and his first since May 6, 2023 at San Diego. It also is just the second time in his career he has struck out eight over 6 scoreless innings.
“I’m going to ride this high for as long as I can. Like I said, I haven’t had many highs this year or in the last three years,” May said. “So just to be able to be pitching right now is a good thing in itself. And to be able to go out and throw like that against a team that’s very, very good. It was a lot of fun.”
In his Red Sox debut last Wednesday, he allowed three runs on six hits, one walk and two hit by pitches in just 3 ⅔ innings at home against the Royals.
“I didn’t really have a great first one, but to be able to come back and have a good one like this against a really good team, it was huge,” he said.
May threw 34 sweepers, 21 sinkers, 19 four-seam fastballs and 18 cutters, per Baseball Savant. He induced 12 swings and misses: six with his sweeper, three with his sinker, two with his four-seamer and one with his cutter.
“There were some long innings at the start, but being able to set the tone with the heater and not rely on the sweeper, it was good,” May said.
In all, he landed 71% of his 96 pitches for strikes.
“It was 85% first pitch strikes,” manager Alex Cora said. “And when you do that, you’re going to have nights like that. He was in command. He was able to slow everything down. Did a good job with the runners, too. This kid is good.”
May, a native of Justin, Texas, had some close buddies from high school here watching him as well as a couple of cousins.
He brought the heat to Texas, topping out at 97.8 mph, per Baseball Savant. His 21 sinkers averaged 95.6 mph, one mile per hour faster than his yearly average (94.6 mph). His 19 four-seamers averaged 96.6 mph, an increase from his 95.5 mph yearly average.
“I didn’t pay attention to that one,” Cora said about May’s velocity. “I paid attention to (him) throwing strikes. And he did a good job mixing it up. The sweeper was good, the backdoor. He used his fastball early on. Both of them — the sinker and the four-seamer.”
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