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With plenty of support, May cruises

Dodgers No. 3 prospect turns in first scoreless Triple-A start
Dustin May has allowed two earned runs or fewer in five of his last seven starts across two levels. (Casey Gower/Nashville Sounds)
July 23, 2019

On a night when his offense rolled up 19 hits, Dustin May might have shined brightest.MLB.com's No. 50 overall prospect posted his first scoreless start at Triple-A, allowing three hits over six innings, as Oklahoma City drubbed Nashville, 16-1. He struck out four and walked one."Tonight, I kind of had

On a night when his offense rolled up 19 hits, Dustin May might have shined brightest.
MLB.com's No. 50 overall prospect posted his first scoreless start at Triple-A, allowing three hits over six innings, as Oklahoma City drubbed Nashville, 16-1. He struck out four and walked one.
"Tonight, I kind of had everything going for me," May said. "I started landing my breaking ball later in the game, which was nice. That definitely played into the factor of getting ahead of guys and getting guys out. Defense played really well behind me. They definitely put up a lot of runs on the offensive side. I don't really have to say much about that, but the defense played really well. I was landing a lot of pitches early and getting some decently quick outs when I needed to."

May (2-0) went to the mound in the bottom of the first inning with a 4-0 lead and took a 7-0 edge into the second. Some lengthy frames in the dugout did nothing to deter the Dodgers' No. 3 prospect.
"You've just got to stay hot in the dugout," he said. "Keep your mind fresh on the game and keep your body hot. You can't get cold and expect to go out there and perform as well. You've just got to keep the mental mind-set and keep your body hot."
The right-hander allowed a two-out single to right field to Willie Calhoun in the first but retired the next five batters, striking out three, before issuing a one-out walk to Adam Moore in the third.
May gave up a single to Zack Granite immediately after the walk but induced a double play ball off the bat of Rangers No. 17 prospectEli White.
Gameday box score
After another 1-2-3 inning in the fourth, May again worked out of trouble by pitching around Juremi Profar's two-out double in the fifth. The right-hander finished his night with an orderly sixth, throwing 61 of 97 pitches for strikes on the way to his second Triple-A win.
"Having the confidence and knowing that I have the ability to get the guy out," he said of his biggest development since moving up from Double-A Tulsa. "The ball took a little bit of time to get adjusted to, but I feel like I'm at a good point with it now. I'm very confident with all of my pitches, that I know I'm going to put them in the zone and get the guy in front of me out. It's all about confidence and conviction behind your pitches."
May dropped his ERA to 2.53 through four Pacific Coast League starts, all in a historically offense-heavy Triple-A season.
"The ball definitely flies more, but if you make quality pitches and you make the pitches you're supposed to when you need to, then they're not going to do damage to it," he said. "You've just got to put it where they're not going to hit more often than you did with the other ball."

Oklahoma City's white-hot offense totaled seven extra-base hits, including five homers. Kyle Garlick led the way with a 4-for-6 night that included a long ball and three RBIs, while Zach Reks went yard and drove in four runs. Dodgers No. 2 prospect Gavin Lux went 2-for-5 with a two-run homer, his eighth in the PCL. The No. 30 overall prospect boasts at least one hit in 18 of 19 games at Triple-A, including 11 multi-hit affairs.
The Dodgers have scored 66 runs on 72 hits, including 24 roundtrippers, during their five-game winning streak.
"It definitely takes a little bit of weight off your shoulders, but you still have to go out and perform because even if we do score a lot of runs, the other team is just as capable to go out and score," May said. "You just have to keep that mind-set of having to go out and dominate still. Even though you're scoring a lot of runs and it can kind of be [lopsided] like it was tonight, you just have to have that mental strength and ability in the back of your mind to be like, I still have to go out and compete and do my job, too."

Tyler Maun is a contributor to MiLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @TylerMaun.