Right-hander Dustin May was solid in his debut for the Milwaukee Brewers as they completed a series victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Milwaukee Brewers concluded their series against the Pittsburgh Pirates with a 5-2 win on Thursday at American Family Field in Milwaukee.
After dropping the first game of the series, the Brewers went on to win the next three. What contributed to their victory this time?
May’s debut
Milwaukee’s front office felt it needed to add some depth in the starting rotation, and after it missed out on Tarik Skubal, right-hander Dustin May was the answer.
The Brewers acquired May in a trade with the St. Louis Cardinals ahead of Monday’s MLB Trade Deadline, and he made his first start with his new club on Thursday.
While other pitchers around Major League Baseball struggled in their first outing with their new teams after being moved at the Deadline, May was not one of them. Through six innings of work, the 28-year-old struck out five batters while allowing three hits, two earned runs, and three walks.
It was not a perfect outing, but May ate up innings, which meant that manager Pat Murphy only had to rely on three relievers. For his efforts, May earned the winning decision, which moved him to 6-7 on the season. He also earned Player of the Game honors.
While the Brewers would have liked to have Skubal, and while they probably preferred that he did not end up with the Los Angeles Dodgers, acquiring May was a solid backup plan. With a mutual $20 million option coming up for May in the 2027 season, there is a strong chance that he will be a rental like Skubal would have been.
But for now, he is a nice addition to a rotation that is headlined by Jacob Misiorowski and Kyle Harrison. May, alongside Logan Henderson, helps to round out a very good staff.
A spread approach
So many times this season, Milwaukee’s offense has scored a lot of runs in one inning to bury its opponents, but that was not the case on Thursday.
The Brewers contributed to the scoreboard in four of the nine innings, and three of their five runs came in the fifth and sixth. Jackson Chourio got things going with a solo home run in the bottom of the first, which marked his second of the series.
In the bottom of the third, rookie Cooper Pratt delivered a sacrifice-fly RBI to right field to give Milwaukee a 2-0 advantage, and after the Pirates tied the game in the top of the fourth after May gave up a solo home run to Brandon Lowe and an RBI single to Spencer Horwitz, the Brewers responded quickly.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Gary Sanchez hit a one-out solo home run to left center field, his first since June 28, and Brice Turang drove Pratt in with an RBI single after the former hit a double. Milwaukee capped off its scoring in the sixth when Andrew Vaughn hit an RBI single of his own.
Overall, the Brewers did not score a lot in this series, but they did not need to. Thursday’s five-run performance was the most they scored over the four games against the Pirates, but they held them to two runs in each of the last three games.
Now, Milwaukee will host the Minnesota Twins on Friday to kick off a three-game set.
