Fireballing Dustin May to adjust quickly to batters that have trouble with the curve

It seems counterintuitive. Dustin May has one of the game’s most electric fastballs, a nasty two-seamer with tailing action that averaged 98.1 mph and often touched 100 mph in 2020, but to induce more swing-and-miss and soft contact this season, the Dodgers right-hander plans to hit the dimmer switch on his signature pitch.

“Just being able to mix my pitches more [will help],� said May, who will make his 2021 debut Monday night when he starts the opener of a three-game series against the Athletics in the Oakland Coliseum.

“I’ve been so fastball dominant down in the zone with my sinker, and [the hitters] kind of got a good idea of that — they know it’s my go-to pitch. So being able to mix some breaking balls down in the zone and flash some heaters up has been really good.�

May, a lanky 6-foot-6, 180-pound right-hander with flaming red hair, is not about to morph into a Greg Maddux-like craftsman. The 23-year-old Texas native will still lean heavily on his two-seamer and a cut-fastball that averaged 93.6 mph last season.

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But he plans to increase the use of his curveball, which he threw 13.4% of the time in 2020, and changeup, which he threw 5.1% of the time in 2020, and he experimented heavily this spring with a four-seam fastball that has a similar velocity to his two-seamer but is ideally thrown up in the zone.

The objective for May, who beat out David Price and Tony Gonsolin for the fifth spot in the Dodgers rotation this spring, is to be less predictable and to induce soft contact earlier in counts, which should help him pitch deeper into games.

May went 3-1 with a 2.57 ERA in 12 games, 10 of them starts, last season, striking out 44 and walking 16 in 56 innings, and he had a 4.22 ERA in 10 2/3 innings across seven playoff games — three of them starts — during the team’s run to the World Series title.

But May’s 7.1% strikeout-per-nine-innings rate in the regular season was far below that of most elite starters, who average at least 10 strikeouts and as many as 14 strikeouts per nine innings.

“I think if you look at last year and his track record through the minor leagues, everything was hard, it was an upper-90s fastball and the hard cutter, and he didn’t really use the breaking ball or the changeup,� Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

“Now, I think the changeup and the curve are part of his arsenal, and he feels comfortable and confident with them. And the ability to get guys off the heater is really important, especially when you’re trying to get hitters out two and three times through the order.�

In his final spring tuneup, a 5 1/3-inning, one-run, four-hit, 85-pitch effort against the Angels in the Freeway Series last Tuesday night, May threw 19 four-seam fastballs, 16 for strikes, and 18 curves, six for strikes.

Though he struggled with the command of his breaking ball, which averaged 85.0 mph, May did strike out Albert Pujols with a down-in-the-zone curve in the fourth inning.

“I was really impressed with the way he and Will [Smith, Dodgers catcher] stuck with the breaking ball,� Roberts said. “The curve wasn’t good early, but the last couple innings he was striking it, shortening it and getting swing and miss, so it was a really encouraging outing.�

May’s challenge as he enters his third season with the Dodgers will be to throw his curve with as much conviction as he throws his fastball.

“I was just kind of babying it in there [against the Angels],� May said. “I have to keep telling myself to rip it over, and it’s going to do what it’s gonna do. Everything else is working. I just have to command the breaking ball better.�