LOS ANGELES -- Dustin May closed his eyes and took a deep breath when he stepped back on the mound at Dodger Stadium, as if taking it all in anew. Then he got to work.
May struck out the side in his first inning against the Braves on Tuesday night, an auspicious start to five strong frames in which he struck out six and allowed just one unearned run on one hit and three walks. It was his first meaningful game on a big league mound in 685 days.
While he had been all business at the beginning of his outing, he practically skipped off the mound with joy to end it, clearly fired up after inducing an inning-ending double play to wrap his first Major League start since May 17, 2023.
"Even if it would have went bad, I still would have been having a good time just being back on a big league mound," May said. "It literally meant the world to me just to be back out on the mound. About eight months ago, I didn’t know if I would be.”
May ended up with a no-decision as the Dodgers came from behind to beat the Braves, 3-1, continuing their undefeated start to the season that ranks as the team's best since moving to L.A. in 1958 and the third best in franchise history. The 2025 Dodgers and 1933 Yankees are the only defending champions to begin the season 7-0, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
The Braves scored their lone run off May in the second inning, although he nearly got out of it cleanly. But with two runners on and one out, Mookie Betts made his first error of the season at shortstop and bobbled the transfer on what could have been a double-play ball, throwing it away and allowing a run to cross the plate.
Betts later made up for the misfire by belting a go-ahead two-run homer off former Red Sox teammate -- and reigning NL Cy Young Award winner -- Chris Sale in the sixth.
"It was amazing, just knowing the journey that he's been through," Betts said of May. "… We can't ask for anything more than what he did today, and I'm glad to have him back."
May's talent is, and has always been, tantalizing -- the 27-year-old right-hander has some of the best stuff on the Dodgers' staff when he's right, and he's posted a 3.10 ERA across parts of five seasons. In that span, he's combined to throw just 191 2/3 innings and endured two major surgeries on his pitching elbow.
There was Tommy John surgery in 2021, then another procedure on that same right elbow to repair a torn flexor tendon in '23. Last summer, May was making progress toward a return to the mound when he suffered a life-threatening incident while out to dinner with his wife and friends. A bite of salad became lodged in his throat, and he needed emergency surgery to repair a tear in his esophagus.
"I was less than a month away from being back at that time," May said. "I felt like I was really close. And then after the esophagus thing happened, it was just like a total reset, like there's nothing I can even do at the moment.
"Playing baseball was at the very back of my mind in the moment. I was just trying to get healthy, get home and be able to see the next morning.”
Now, every moment that May spends on the diamond means so much more.
The nearly two years in between big league outings provided ample time for maturation. There were times in the past when Roberts would see his fiery young arm let his emotions get the better of him. Now, Roberts sees a version of May who is able to channel what he's feeling.
With every step of his return bringing on emotions, that ability has been important for May.
"I thought there's going to be a lot more anxiousness, nerves that might reflect some pitch execution," Roberts said. "But he bottled it up really well."
For May, finding ways to remain level-headed through his long and winding journey back has made it easier for him to do the same on the mound.
"I was looking for the positive side of things," May said, "even though there wasn’t really a very bright light at the end of the tunnel at the time. I had to scratch and claw my way out, and find my way back.”