Brewers chip away at early deficit but can't overcome May's tough outing

MILWAUKEE – Dustin May breezed through his first two Brewers starts since the Trade Deadline. But he’s been around long enough to know they won’t all be that way.

May ran into his first roadblock since joining the Brewers in a 7-5 loss to the Mariners on Wednesday, when mediocre command and a slew of soft contact conspired to knock the right-hander out of the game after he allowed more hits and earned runs (seven each) then he recorded outs (six) in a 66-pitch outing.

In other words, the Mariners did to May and the Brewers what the Brewers often do to other teams.

“There was a lot of stuff I could have executed better, but it was one of those outings where you can’t be super frustrated with yourself, just because you didn’t really give up any hard contact,” May said. “So, like, you were still beating guys on stuff, but they were just putting it where we weren’t tonight.”

The Brewers spent the rest of the night chipping away, getting a career-high-tying four RBIs from Joey Ortiz via a trio of run-scoring plate appearances. A 7-0 deficit in the middle of the second inning became a 7-4 deficit on Ortiz’s RBI single in the eighth, and a 7-5 deficit when Cooper Pratt grounded into a run-scoring double play in his first game back from a hamstring injury.

But that’s as close as the Brewers got.

“Our guys nearly came back. They battled,” manager Pat Murphy said. “We had some youthful at-bats in there. When you’re trying to make a comeback, that doesn’t help.”

“I never thought we were fully out of it,” May said. “I know the guys have been swinging it well recently. There was definitely a shot of us coming back.”

That’s an understatement. The Brewers were 24 hours removed from putting a 22-0 beating on the Mariners in Tuesday’s series opener, setting a franchise record for margin of victory and tying the club mark for runs scored. The Mariners returned the favor against May, scoring four runs in the first inning and three more in the second, saddling May with seven hits and seven runs to match his season highs in both categories (an April 4 start for the Cardinals). That was May’s second outing of the season.

He’d long since put that rocky start behind him. In his last 21 starts before he took the mound on Wednesday night, he logged a respectable 3.38 ERA.

But Wednesday was a struggle from the very first batter, Brendan Donovan, who hit a bouncer to the hole at second base that Brice Turang couldn’t handle. It was the first of four Mariners hits in an opening inning that also included a pair of two-out walks. The only loud contact for Seattle was Dominic Canzone’s 103.6 mph two-run double.

“First ball of the game, Turang makes that play most of the time. It’s a great play, but he makes it most of the time,” Murphy said. “It’s a tough first inning. [May] gives up one hard contact, but he got himself in trouble with almost 40 pitches. After all that, he gave up one hard contact.”

The second inning was much of the same.

Aside from Canzone’s double, none of the hits off May left the bat north of 87 mph, according to Statcast.

“I’ve had a lot of these type of outings this year, unfortunately,” May said. “It’s one of those things where you have to put your head down and execute the next pitch and hope for a better result.”