How did May react after first win since April? 'It's been a hot minute'

NEW YORK – It’s been a while since right-hander Dustin May picked up a victory, the last one coming on April 21 against the Marlins. On Tuesday, a month and a half later, May finally found himself in the win column as the Cardinals trounced the Mets, 7-0, at Citi Field.

“It’s been a hot minute,” May said about the victory. “It’s not even about me. It’s good to get a full team win.”

May was dealing, throwing six shutout innings, allowing four hits with one walk and striking out six batters. He was on the attack and had 16 first-pitch strikes. Almost everything he threw was working, from his four-seamer to his sinker. In fact, May threw his fastball as high as 98.5 mph.

“Execution was pretty good. I wouldn’t say it was great on a lot of things,” May said. “Getting ahead always helps. It wasn’t quick outs, but I was ahead in a lot of counts.”

Mets manager Carlos Mendoza was impressed by what he saw from May.

"The sinker was good against righties today, had a lot of movement,” the skipper said. “The cutter against lefties, and then he was finishing off with the fastball at the top of the zone. But you get down … it's a different at-bat, you know. This guy's going to work ahead, he's going to get ahead, he's going to attack. And you know, once you got down, we couldn't do much with him."

After allowing 13 runs across his first two starts of the season, May has pitched to a 2.89 ERA (21 earned runs in 65 1/3 innings) in his last 11 starts and allowed three runs or fewer in 10 of those starts.

Before this season, May went through a lot of injuries during his seven-year career. Last year, May pitched under 200 pounds after recovering from an esophageal tear in early 2024. His playing weight is now 215 and he is pitching like he did when he was a prospect with the Dodgers.

“I feel healthy. I feel really strong right now. So I’m trying to build off of that,” he said.

The Mets had chances to score off the right-hander, but May managed to get out of trouble. In the second inning, A.J. Ewing collected a double with one out. After Ewing advanced to third base on a passed ball by Jimmy Crooks, May ended the threat by striking out Marcus Semien and Brett Baty.

Nathan Church’s glove in center field bailed May out in the fourth inning. New York had runners on first and second with two outs. Semien was in the batter’s box when he hit a deep fly ball to center. It looked like Church didn’t have a chance to catch the ball. He turned around a few times, but was able to make a sensational basket catch.

“Off the bat, I knew [Church] had to go back,” May said. “When he was running towards the wall, it was like, this is [a home run]. Then when he looked left and looked right, he turned around and made a basket catch. I didn’t know how to react to that because that was kind of insane.”

Church was warned before the game by outfield coach Jon Jay that the wind would be a problem when attempting to catch a fly ball.

“Jay told me it was windy and told me to spin around, so when I went [back], did the exact same thing, I turned around and made a basket catch,” Church said.

It was a bad day for Mets right-hander Freddy Peralta, who allowed a season-high six runs. Four of those runs were scored in the third inning when JJ Wetherholt had the biggest hit, driving in Nolan Gorman and Church with a single.

Alec Burleson provided the final dagger on Peralta’s line by hitting a two-run homer in the fifth.

The Cardinals have now won five straight games and improved their record to 36-28.

“Guys just keep staying present. They are not distracted by a whole lot even when things don’t go their way,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “I like our approach. I like our lineup at the moment. Our rotation and our bullpen has done a nice job.”