LOS ANGELES -- Dustin May was clearly unhappy with himself when he walked off the mound.
The 27-year-old right-hander, never one to contain himself from showing some emotion when he's toeing the rubber, had just tossed seven-plus innings of two-run ball, helping the Dodgers pull off a sweep of the White Sox with a 6-2 victory on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium.
It was the way things ended that had May frustrated. He came back out for the eighth inning for the first time in his Major League career, but he served up a two-run homer to Brooks Baldwin on his final pitch of the game.
That capped a strong start that began with five perfect frames and matched the longest outing of his career at seven innings, which he last did on March 31, 2023. Despite that, in the moment, May let himself stew.
"Because I didn't execute," May said. "It was a [crappy] pitch, [crappy] location. Felt like I could have got out of it, but he battled and I lost."
His batterymate, rookie Dalton Rushing, brings a similar competitive fire and felt the same way.
"It hurts me just as much as it does him," Rushing said. "It was a pitch call that I made, and it's something I want to wear on my chest before he wears it on his. He went seven[-plus], whatever it was, very strong. And that, obviously, was so big for us, big for our bullpen."
Being in uncharted territory has been a common experience for May this year. He's blown by his previous single-season career high in innings by more than 30 frames. He made a big league start in June for the first time in his career. He has been a steady piece of an unstable Dodgers rotation, providing valuable innings all through the first half.
"It's great," manager Dave Roberts said, "and now it doesn't even feel like he missed 18 months or whatever it was. He just feels like he's a guy that's just kind of in a rhythm right now. Not all of them are going to be great, but again, the dependability, the consistency of innings that he's giving us. Every time he goes out there, we have a chance to win. And there's a lot of value with our club."
May sees it as merely doing his job. In his sixth season in the big leagues -- he missed all of 2024 due to injury -- he has been far more reliable and durable than in years past, when he dealt with more than his fair share of injury-related adversity.
In each of his outings except last Friday in Kansas City, May has completed at least five innings. He's gone 5-5 with a 4.52 ERA, and he and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are the only rotation members who have yet to miss a start.
So while May let himself get worked up after a sour end to his evening, he still carries some perspective with him.
"I'm just trying to live in a three-foot world," May said. "I've had a lot of ups and downs in my career so far. I don't try to look too far ahead at all. I just try to stay one pitch at a time."