Brewers hoping to dodge injury absences with May, Bauers

NEW YORK -- Dustin May wasn’t able to dodge the 106 mph line drive that knocked him out of Wednesday’s start against the Mets after just one pitch, but a day later it appeared he did dodge a serious injury.

May reported feeling “a little sore” but otherwise fine on Thursday afternoon, and he was able to play catch in the outfield at Citi Field amid a drizzle. That raised the possibility he could rejoin the Brewers’ starting rotation as soon as Sunday against the Rangers, a start originally lined up for left-hander Robert Gasser before he threw 5 1/3 innings of emergency relief behind May on Wednesday night.

If it’s as straightforward as flipping those two starters in the rotation, it would keep things simple for the Brewers, even though it would juggle the rotation for the next critical series against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. May had appeared lined up to pitch the second game of that series, though the Brewers haven’t put out their plans for any of those games just yet.

“We’ll just see how he feels and if we can’t get him in there as soon as possible,” Murphy said. “Possibly Sunday.”

In case you were wondering, May was the 11th pitcher to start a game and throw only one pitch, according to Baseball-Reference. The last was Pablo López for the Marlins against the Braves on July 2, 2021. López hit a batter, was ejected and that runner came around to score in a 1-0 loss.

Bauers latest
Jake Bauers was absent from the starting lineup for a third straight game Thursday as the Brewers try to guide him through a painful bout of shin splints. Bauers had been dealing with discomfort in both shins as far back as May before the pain and swelling became acute last week and forced a few days off his feet.

There’s a chance Bauers is back for Milwaukee on Friday night against the Rangers.

“I sure hope so,” Murphy said. “He’s available today. He’s feeling a little bit better, but we have to keep him off his feet as much as we can.”

The hope is that taking this series off will be enough of a reset for Bauers to resume regular duties split between first base and the outfield. He leads the Brewers with 23 home runs and went into Thursday among the National League leaders in on-base percentage (fourth, .382), OPS (sixth, .883), slugging percentage (10th, .501) and walks (eighth, 70).

He’ll try to maintain that level of production knowing he will have to deal with shin splints for the rest of the season, since the only cure is a long rest over the offseason. Bauers said the pain was so serious that he actually had an MRI before the start of the Brewers-Mets series.

“It’s just going to be a thing where I push through it until the end,” Bauers said.