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.
