Brewers’ Cooper Pratt discusses his benching by Pat Murphy on Aug. 25.
Cooper Pratt discusses manager Pat Murphy’s decision to bench him mid-game Aug. 25, part of the Milwaukee Brewers’ 3-2 loss to the New York Mets.
Dustin May’s first two starts were exactly what the Milwaukee Brewers need to see from him come playoff time.
The past three (but really two with an asterisk after throwing one pitch and exiting one of them) raise questions about how much he’s even going to be pitching in the postseason.
The answer is, almost assuredly, that May still will be a part of the Brewers playoff pitching plans when the time comes.
But signs of shoddy control and an inability to put hitters away with fastballs could be harbingers of a bad time in October if he can’t turn them around.
If the results – most recently four runs on six hits, three walks and a hit batter in 4⅓ innings as the Brewers lost 7-4 to the Texas Rangers on Aug. 30 – weren’t telling enough of where the right-hander stands, May’s postgame demeanor was.
“Frustrated with the results, for sure. I feel like I’m [soiling] the bed for the boys,” said May, who prior to answering questions about the outing sat at his locker scrolling on his phone for five minutes. “Definitely not the spot that I want to be in.”
The good news for the Brewers is May has done what they need him to do most of the season. At the time of his acquisition from the St. Louis Cardinals on Aug. 3, May had been riding success with his three-fastball mix to one of the lowest FIPs in baseball over the prior three months. If you look at his year to date, the underlying numbers would tell you he’s pitched far better than his 4.69 earned run average would say.
But May, acquired for a hefty haul to provide critical postseason starts, hasn’t done that lately. He’s allowed too many free runners and hasn’t executed with consistency after getting ahead.
May’s cutter entered the day with a 29.2% whiff rate and 16.7% hard-hit rate with the Brewers. It got three more whiffs on 10 swings against the Rangers and no hard-hit contact. The four-seamer has a 26.3% whiff rate but is getting pummeled when opponents make contact. The sinker’s metric are on par with what they should be but it hasn’t been achieving its desired results.
The translation: May’s stuff is fine. The issue, then, lies in execution – observations May himself backed.
“I think it’s all just being able to execute when I need to execute,” May said. “There were a lot of 0-2, 1-2, counts that I gave up hits and hard contact on that [if] I execute better, it shouldn’t be that way.”
May’s profile, on the surface, fits the Brewers mold quite well. He mixes fastball, keeps the ball on the ground and attacks.
But if he’s not stealing strikes or getting the ball on the ground with his fastballs, their purpose is diminished.
And against the Rangers, May got only one called strike out of 25 four-seamers thrown. Out of 64 total fastballs thrown including sinkers and cutters, he had only 10 called strikes.
The sinker is getting few grounders since coming over, and that isn’t going to fly if he’s not missing bats with the four-seamer and sweeper.
“I know who the kid is,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “I’ve watched him across the field and how dominant he’s been at times. It’s that part of the season where there’s a lot of innings built up. I trust him that he’ll get on track and they’ll all get on the same page. I think we’ll do that.”
Against Texas, May was a man searching for answers, but as he continued to search each and every new one he tried came up empty.
The sweepers early weren’t generating any swing-and-miss. He couldn’t execute a two-strike fastball, and one of the only ones he did all game got hit out to left field for a game-tying homer in the third.
“You can blame it on a lot of things but we’re in September,” May said. “There’s really no excuse. I got to be better.”
The deeper the Brewers go into the playoffs, the more they will need May to pitch. He currently lines up as their No. 4 starter behind Jacob Misiorowski, Logan Henderson and Kyle Harrison, and that’s a spot that matters because, as last October showed, the more starters the better.
The Brewers got May to start those types of games. But if May doesn’t show signs of being that type of pitcher in September, Milwaukee will have to pivot.
“It sucks to be sucking right now,” he said. “Glad to get them out of the way now to get on a roll later.”