Dustin May’s dominance for Dodgers has everything to do with this one pitch

Between him and Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May was probably the less popular candidate for the last spot in the Dodgers' rotation. Neither Gonsolin or May had pitched since 2023 — Gonsolin's last start was in was in mid-August and May's was in mid-May — but Gonsolin doesn't have the same sketchy history of injury behind him whereas May, infamously, hasn't pitched more than 56 innings in a single season.

But Gonsolin and Bobby Miller getting hurt during spring training made May the default choice. There were still reasons to be concerned in terms of how long a leash the Dodgers would give him, given his rotten luck with injuries, but it's also a pivotal year for him as his last before free agency.

May has pitched three starts so far for the Dodgers, and he's looked dialed for each of them. In his return to the mound, he pitched five innings and gave up just one unearned run while striking out six. In the two starts and 12 innings since, he's given up just two runs and has struck out eight batters.

It's not hard to tell, just by watching a start, what the key to May's success has been. This year, he's leaning on his sweeper, and to devastating effect. Not a single batter he's faced has been able to get a hit off of it, and it's responsible for eight of his 14 strikeouts.

Dodgers starter Dustin May's devastating sweeper is literally unhittable so far this season

That sweeper has been effective for him ever since he introduced it in 2020 — it yielded just a .161 batting average against that year — but has just been getting better with age. The yank on it is so dramatic that it's a miracle any time a right-handed batter manages to lay off of it. This year, it's his second-most used pitch after his sinker, which has a .222 batting average against. Still good, but clearly more hittable.

It's a pretty beautiful pitch just to the naked eye; it looks exactly like his two-seamer until it just doesn't anymore. In his most recent start against the Rockies, they went 0-5 with five strikeouts against the sweeper.

May and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are the only Dodgers starters who have already put up two quality starts. Yamamoto has also been looking fantastic this year and May has one fewer start, but if he can stay in the same league as Yamamoto (and stay healthy) then the Dodgers aren't going to want to let him get away this offseason.