May makes his rotation case as Brewers ponder postseason pitching plans

MILWAUKEE – Dustin May’s final outing of the regular season spanned only three innings of Saturday’s 3-2 win over the Cardinals at sold-out American Family Field, but it was enough to give the Brewers’ decision-makers plenty to chew on as they begin to build a postseason pitching plan.

On one hand, May showed flashes of the pitcher the Brewers acquired at the Trade Deadline with October in mind. He touched 99.2 mph in a 1-2-3 first inning with the first two of his five strikeouts. When he found trouble in the second inning, he limited the damage to one run on a broken-bat single. Given all of his recent struggles, May just shook his head and smiled.

On the other hand, he yielded a booming, two-out solo home run in the third inning to Alec Burleson that sailed a Statcast-projected 432 feet.

All told, there was plenty to like, and some to not like.

The Brewers have the next week to decide where to slot May into the staff for the National League Division Series. Manager Pat Murphy didn’t commit either way after the Brewers secured their 102nd victory with Brice Turang’s go-ahead, two-run home run and six innings of scoreless relief from the bullpen.

“I mean, he’s right there,” Murphy said. “I guess we’ve got to break it down and really sit down and look at everybody’s health, where they’re at, how we’re going to go about the series. Who we’re playing, it matters.”

May posted a 5.65 ERA in his 10 regular season starts with the Brewers and completed five innings only once in his final eight outings. Some of that was not May’s doing; he was knocked out of a start at Citi Field against the Mets after being struck by a line drive on the first pitch of the game, for example. And his final two starts of the season were abbreviated by design – attempts by the Brewers to help May build some confidence.

That plan didn’t come to fruition in his penultimate start in Philadelphia, where May was asked to get six outs and surrendered two runs on two walks and a homer.

Four days later, he was back on the mound one more time against the Cardinals.

“I just think it’s important for his psyche to perform well,” pitching coach Chris Hook said going into the day. “It’s just such a different animal going into the playoffs. It’s not the same type of pitcher you are in the regular season. It gets turned up. We know what his stuff, whether it’s short stints or even in a longer stint, it’s going to be fun. I’m not really concerned about it.”

Said Murphy on Saturday afternoon: “This is not a tryout session.”

May indicated he was pleased with his stuff, again. And he was frustrated about surrendering a home run, again. Those were similar takeaways from previous Brewers outings.

But there was more good on Saturday than not good, by his calculations. And he was better in sync with sequencing and pitch selection, he said. He simply missed his spot with Burleson, aiming up and in and left the pitch away.

“I thought everything was coming out really well,” May said. “I was in the zone early, got ahead early on a lot of guys. I just need to stay away from people’s nitro zones.”

May said he was “an open door” as far as a role in the postseason. Will he join Jacob Misiorowski and Logan Henderson as a starter? Or is his role up for grabs?

“I don’t know,” Hook said. “I think we’ll have that conversation about who goes where on Monday. I really don’t know where most guys are going to fit. Our group will get together and we’ll talk through that. The biggest thing for him is to come out of this one in a good spot, like, ‘Now I feel like I’m ready to do this.’ That’s No. 1 for me.”

Both Hook and Murphy believe too little attention has been paid to the challenge facing a player, particularly a pitcher, who changes teams at midseason. Hook likes to use all six weeks of Spring Training to get inside his pitchers’ heads to learn how they like to work, what language they like to use when it comes to pitching, and what they need to be successful.

Doing that on the fly in August and September, when the games matter most, is “a humongous challenge,” Hook said.

“I feel for those guys, the hired guns,” Hook said. “It’s a lot of pressure, too. This guy, he wants to compete. There’s no doubt about that. He wants to do well."