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Dustin May closed his eyes, took a breath and held his head suspended toward the heavens.

For a brief moment, shortly before he began warming up for the first inning on Tuesday night, the Dodgers' pitcher let himself absorb the significance of his milestone moment — reflecting one last time on the 685-day journey that brought him there.

“There was definitely a lot of emotions that got let out,” May said. “It was just super, super great to be back out there.”

Not since May 17, 2023, had May last stood atop the Dodger Stadium mound. That day, he suffered an elbow injury that led to a flexor tendon surgery and Tommy John revision, the second major arm procedure of his young MLB career.

During the 22 months that followed, the hard-throwing right-hander endured a rehab process of uniquely difficult circumstances, getting close to a return midway through last season before a freak accident at dinner last July forced him into emergency, and season-ending, surgery to repair a frightening esophagus tear.

Read more:One bite of salad derailed Dustin May's return to Dodgers. He's thankful to be back

As May finally worked his way back to full strength this spring, the experience gave the 27-year-old renewed perspective. He was no longer a promising young prospect. He was unable to contribute to the Dodgers’ 2024 World Series championship.

But after so much time away, and such a scary medical saga last summer, he was simply grateful to once again be back on the rubber — making his season debut, and first MLB start since in almost two years, in the Dodgers’ 3-1 win over the Atlanta Braves.

“Even if it would have went bad, I still would have been having a good time,” May said afterward. “It literally meant the world to me just to be back out on the mound.”

Instead, May was clinical during a five-inning start on Tuesday, giving up just one unearned run to help the Dodgers — who also got a go-ahead two-run home run from Mookie Betts in the sixth inning off reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale — extend their perfect start to the season to a Los Angeles franchise record of 7-0.

In his outing, May gave up just one hit, struck out six batters and worked around three walks to escape a couple crucial jams.

Read more:Tyler Glasnow dominates as Dodgers tie franchise mark for best L.A. start

Most notably, he also displayed a calming demeanor in his return; replacing his old fiery and self-critical disposition with increased poise and, in the view of Dodgers coaches, newfound maturity.

“Just knowing that everything that I've been through in the last two years, it was just a huge weight lifted off my shoulders, and it was like I could just kind of relax,” May said. “Being able to stay a little bit more level-headed throughout life in general has been one of my biggest things in the last six months. Just trying to live in the moment. [Knowing] everything is going to be OK no matter what happens.”

May first began to change 10 months ago — when, just weeks away from a big-league return last July, he suffered his torn esophagus on a bite of a salad that got lodged in his throat. 

That night, he went to the hospital and was rushed into surgery. Doctors told him that without medical intervention, “I probably wouldn’t have made it through the night.” 

“I felt like I was really close. And then after the esophagus thing happened, it was just like a total reset,” May added. “Like there's nothing I can even do at the moment. … I was just trying to get healthy, get home and be able to see the next morning.”

The Dodgers were on a road trip to Philadelphia and Detroit when May went through his medical scare. And as word started spreading about what had happened, the team almost couldn’t believe the gravity of the situation.

“We have a message [chat] with medical updates, and got a thing saying, ‘Hey, he had a choking incident. He choked on some salad,’” pitching coach Mark Prior said. “Everybody’s like, ‘Huh? OK, that doesn’t sound great.’ But then we learned, ‘Oh no, it was an emergency surgery.’ We didn’t hear about that for a couple days.”

Echoed Betts: “We didn't understand what that really meant. It was hard to believe. Like one of those stories that you just make up, but it was actually true.”

When the Dodgers next saw May during a road series in Phoenix a couple months later, the pitcher was back on his feet but nowhere near playing shape.

An already lanky right-hander, he looked concerningly skinny after losing roughly 40 pounds from the liquid-only diet he was required to follow in the wake of his surgery. When coaches asked about the scar from his procedure, he lifted his shirt to show a long vertical incision running up the length of his chest.

“It almost looked like an open-heart-type surgery,” Prior said of the scar. “So to see where he’s at now, it’s pretty incredible.”

Despite not returning to full strength until around the turn of the New Year, May showed up to spring training displaying surprisingly impressive form. From the outset of camp, he emerged as a front-runner for the No. 5 spot in the team’s opening day rotation. And as he kept ramping up over the course of the preseason, the team noticed his altered approach to the game.

“To watch him mature and grow up in his own way, he’s just got a nice pro presence around him right now,” assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness said. “As scary as it was, I think it put some things in perspective for him.”

For example, rather than throwing at “full max effort all the time” to overpower hitters with upper-90s mph heat, McGuiness said, May found increased consistency by “pitching efficiently at a good effort level, without blowing it out every single throw.”

“He can tap into that bigger velo when he needs it,” McGuiness added. “But [without it], he can actually kind of move the ball around, command it a little better.”

May still walked three batters, and threw only 46 strikes in 81 pitches. But he was able to repeatedly execute in the most crucial situations, like when he stranded two aboard in the second inning after Betts’ throwing error at shortstop led to his lone unearned run, or when he got ahead of Nick Allen with two strikes in the top of the fifth to set up his sweeper for an inning-ending double-play

“It was good to see [myself] actually getting big-league hitters out,” May said. “That was the best I’ve felt mechanical-wise and stuff-wise [in a long time] tonight.”

The other big change on Tuesday was May’s in-game emotional state.

Instead of cursing and screaming every time his adrenaline surged, the now sixth-year big-leaguer kept a cooler head. After striking out the side in the first, he simply skipped his way back to the dugout. In moments of frustration, he did little more than crane his neck.

“He's out there, certainly, being grateful that he has an opportunity to pitch and be healthy,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He's not as hard on himself as I recall in years past. He just kind of gets to the next pitch a lot better.”

It was all reflective of the long road May had traveled to get back to this stage, and the adversity-hardened mindset he was forced to evolve along the way.

“I was looking for the positive side of things, even though there wasn’t really a very bright light at the end of the tunnel,” May said. “I had to scratch and claw my way out, and find my way back.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The Yankees dropped their first game of the season Tuesday night, a 7-5 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks. The game got away from the Yankees after the bullpen allowed five runs in the eighth inning.

Despite the loss, the Yankees (3-1) are happy with the performance of young right-hander Will Warren. The 25-year-old made his first 2025 start and was impressive. He worked five innings, allowing just two runs to a formidable Diamondbacks lineup.

“That’s an exciting first outing for him," manager Aaron Boone said after the game. "That’s a really good offense to go through and I thought he pitched really well. Even when he had a couple leadoff walks, didn’t come unraveled at all. I thought he did a very good job of changing speeds. His secondary tonight was excellent. But a very encouraging first outing against a good offense there."

Warren made six appearances (five starts) a season ago and struggled. In that time in the big leagues, Warren was 0-3 with a 10.32 ERA. In the past, walks would snowball innings for Warren but Boone was glad to see his young hurler stay composed and get through five, especially in that fifth inning.

After allowing a leadoff walk, Warren got Alek Thomas and Geraldo Perdomo before taking on Corbin Carroll. The former NL Rookie of the Year took Warren deep in the third inning, so this was a hug spot with the Yankees only up 4-2.

Warren fell behind Carroll in the count 2-0 but then got the left-handed hitter swinging on the next three pitches, finishing with a curveball in the dirt. Warren was visibly pumped up as he walked off the mound and into the dugout.

"I loved seeing the emotion out there," Ben Rice, who went 2-for-4 with a home run,said of Warren. "He's got electric stuff and he showed that he's a competitor. That's what we know he's capable of."

"That was nice. Definitely was emptying the tank there in the fifth," Warren said of his final inning. "That was big for me to try and get through five."

Boone said he believes Warren's time in the majors last year and his impressive spring are reasons for Warren's ability to overcome the walks -- which he had four of on Tuesday.

"I do think that next wave of experience for him, I thought he did a good job of controlling the environment around him," Boone said. "Was poised all night. Yea, his stuff was good. There was some adversity along the way but he handled it really well."

With injuries to Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt, Warren will be asked to play a big role in the Yankees rotation this season.

🗣 WILL WARREN IS FIRED UP

(via @Yankees) pic.twitter.com/0Nk3ll7R8j

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) April 2, 2025

Schmidt's return

Clarke Schmidt is starting the 2025 season on the IL with shoulder fatigue but the Yankees now know when they'll the right-hander back.

"He threw yesterday," Boone said after Tuesday's game. "We have him marked April 15/16. He’s got two more starts. He’ll start this weekend with Somerset up in Hartford and then he’ll have one more and the plan is for him to be with us."

Following Schmidt's two minor league starts, and if all goes well, the Yankees will have him back for their home series against the Kansas City Royals.

The 29-year-old was impressive with the Yanks last season, pitching to a 2.85 ERA and 1.18 WHIP in 16 starts. Schmidt's return would bolster a rotation that is, as previously mentioned, without Cole for the entire season and Gil for the first few months.

Yankees bullpen implosion

The Yankees' eight-inning was their downfall. The bullpen allowed five runs including a massive grand slam to Eugenio Suarez.

Tim Hill started off and allowed a scorching double to Randal Grichuk before Geraldo Perdomo hit a single over the first base bag to score Grichuk and bring Arizona within a run.

Hill would rebound by getting Carroll to ground out, and although he struggled, the Yankees skipper felt his southpaw executed well.

"That team creates some challenges for you especially with the platoon advantages they try to create," Boone said. "Grichuk stings the ball up. We want Perdomo on the right side he blocked that chopper over there and then [Hill] gets Carroll and we want to keep Marte on the left side. Overall, I thought Timmy threw the ball fine. Grichuk really stung it on him but he executed well against Perdomo and Carroll there."

Boone relieved Hill to bring in Mark Leiter Jr. with one out. The right-hander walked the first two batters he faced before getting Josh Naylor to strike out. He then had Suarez on a 2-2 count but left a splitter over the middle of the plate, which the third baseman smashed to left field for the lead.

"Can’t walk two guys, that’s really it. That’s all I got for you," Leiter Jr. said. "Can’t really walk those two guys. Trying to keep Ketel [Marte] close and being a little too quick and falling behind. And not landing the offspeed pitches."

"Just not his sharpest outing," Boone said. "He’s been throwing the ball so well the last month or so especially his first couple of outings. I thought he got himself back on track with the Naylor punch and I thought he executed a couple of good pitches in the Suarez at-bat but it wasn’t a good split there, obviously, that he threw there.

"Just one of those nights where he was just a little bit off there."

One of those nights indeed. Entering Tuesday, Leiter Jr. was lights out, pitching two perfect innings with four strikeouts this season. And before that, Leiter Jr. didn't allow a run in 4.2 innings during spring training.

Francisco Lindor committed just 12 errors in 151 games, covering 564 chances. The Mets' shortstop committed two errors on his first two chances, the second of which proved costly, in Tuesday night’s 4-2 loss to the Miami Marlins. 

“I felt like we played a clean game except two pitches on my two ground balls,” Lindor, who went 1-for-4 with an RBI single, said after the game. “I take a lot of pride in it, it doesn’t feel good.”

“Very rare to see him with two errors in a game,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “It happens; he’s human.” 

The first play was a tougher chance, and a more generous official scorer may have bailed him out when the speedy Dane Myers’ slow roller bounced off the heel of his glove as he came charging in toward the infield grass. 

The second was a play Lindor makes in his sleep: He was in perfect position in no time to field Otto Lopez's 103.8 mph grounder to start the fourth inning but misplayed the hop off the heel of his glove.  

“Usually, errors happen when you take your eyes off the baseball,” Lindor said. “And I saw both of them hit my glove. So my head, everything was on the baseball. Just missed it.”

He added: “It’s our job to finish the plays, and today was on me.”

And while the first error went unpunished, the second allowed the Marlins to plate two runs on Graham Pauley’s two-out double to break a 2-2 tie. And the two unearned runs ended up being the difference and spoiled five solid innings from Kodai Senga.

Lindor said that he spoke to the starter after the game, who told him not to worry about it, but “it still kinda hurts” because Senga is a “great professional” and “great teammate.”

“I wish had still done better for Senga,” the shortstop said. “Senga had a great game. It’s unfortunate that I didn’t finish the play for him; he executed today all night long. Definitely should be better.”

But the starter didn’t let Lindor take all the blame, either.

“Since the day I signed with this team, Lindor’s always been there,” Senga said through an interpreter. “He’s always supported me, always given me words of encouragement, he’s always been there for not just me but everybody on the team. So, when he makes a mistake, I need to be there to pick him up. 

“Not only him but everybody else on the team. He’s always there for everybody, and it was my fault to make his error be highlighted because of my poor performance.”

The only thing left to do is “go out there tomorrow, work at them and make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Lindor added.

Torpedoes jammed

After an explosion for 10 runs on Monday night, the Mets could muster just a pair in the early innings off Miami ace Sandy Alcántara through five innings.

The right-hander surrendered just three hits – a Brandon Nimmo home run, a Luisangel Acuña double, and Lindor single – while getting four strikeouts and needed just 70 pitches.

“The way he mixes pitches, not only the sinker against righties but the changeup, the slider against lefties,” Mendoza said. “He used all of his pitches, kept the ball down, got ground balls, and we didn’t do much off him.”

The four Marlins who came out of the bullpen were equally tough, with only Jesse Winker managing an infield hit before the ninth inning saw Juna Soto walk and Nimmo grab a single. In all, the home side’s bullpen needed just 55 pitches to get the final 12 outs.

“We didn’t have many good at-bats there,” the manager said. “We couldn’t create opportunities until that last inning. Didn’t get much going and didn’t hit many balls hard against their bullpen.”

No Kranick at the disco

Mendoza said Max Kranick could be a “really good” weapon for the Mets after his three perfect innings of relief.

“For him to come in like that and basically save the bullpen and kept the game and gave us a chance,” the manager said. “That was pretty impressive.”

After escaping a bases loaded and one-out jam in his first outing of the year Saturday against Houston, the right-hander needed just 22 pitches to retire nine straight Marlins after Senga’s five innings of work.

“Attacked, threw stikes, used all of his pitches, was pitch efficient, and that’s gonna be huge for us moving forward having a guy like that that you know you can trust in helping you keeping games close or keeping a lead, giving you distance out of the bullpen,” Mendoza added. “That’s a pretty valuable piece.”

Kranick did allow some hard contact, but the results – much like Huascar Brazobán on Monday – were hard to argue against.

Kodai Senga’s first start of his 2025 season got off to a horrible start – allowing two runs on two hits in just four pitches – but the Mets' right-hander settled into deliver a commendable effort in a 4-2 loss at the Miami Marlins on Tuesday.

“I think I lacked a little bit of calmness, just kind of giving them easy pitches to hit,” Senga said of the two extra-base hits to start the game. “I was just a little relieved to be back out there in a big-league game after the year that he had last year and that lead to bad results.”

The first inning has been the bugaboo his entire career, as he has a 4.65 ERA in that frame, the highest for any inning. But after that, the right-hander really went to work and toyed with the Marlins lineup.

Senga got the first two batters of the second inning swinging through forkballs before the forkball got all three batters swinging in the third inning.

Carlos Mendoza called the first two batters a “wake-up call” for the right-hander. “Other than the first two batters of the game,” he said. “He was really good.”

The starter concurred with the manager: “After that, I was able to sort out through my head what I need to do, all the data on how to approach the hitters, and that turned out to be effective.”

Overall, he threw 77 pitches through five innings, with 22 forkballs and 22 four-seam fastballs toping out his mix. But the forkball was most effective, getting nine whiffs on 15 swings.

But Senga is a harsher grader than most: “It was not bad, not great, but not bad,” he said of the forkball.

“First time throwing to [Luis] Torrens in a big league game, so I think there are some adjustments that are going to be continued to be made and I think he did a great job using it and that’s why I was able to perform decently," he said. “I think it’s gonna be better throughout the rest of the season.”

Despite the harsh self-critique, there were positives to take from his first outing of the season. Senga said he was able to “get his rhythm” and settled in very nicely to put the first four pitches behind him.

"I only threw about five innings in a big league game last year, and that's why a lot of the rythm part... was gone," he said. "How much to push and step on it earlier on in the game. And I think you could see my velo was a little bit higher toward the end of the game.

"I was able to grasp a little bit of that and able to get a lot out of this outing."

Senga closed on a high note, blowing a 97 mph fastball past Kyle Stowers for his eighth strikeout, making his final pitch the fastest he threw of the night by 1.2 mph.

Tuesday marked his first regular season start since July 26 last season and a pair of ill-fated outings at the Los Angeles Dodgers in the ALCS that October. Against that backdrop, Mendoza's assessment rings closer to reality: “The slider, sweeper, the split was really good. And then the way he was using the fastball."

But mistakes loomed large for the right-hander. 

The second pitch of his debut was a 94.4 mph four-seam fastball that was right over the heart of the plate and smacked to right-center for a double off Xavier Edwards' bat. Two pitches later, he threw a 93.4 mph four-seam fastball that was middle-middle, and Stowers launched it 421 feet to center for a two-run home run.

“It all comes down to not winning,” Senga said. “I wasn’t able to put my team in the best position to win, gave up two runs quick against their ace. Our team got those two runs back, and then I let up the lead again.” 

In the fourth, with two outs and a runner on first base after a Francisco Lindor error in a tied game. And here is perhaps where Senga's critique is harshest: Back-to-back forkballs failed to induce a swing from Jonah Bride, with the 3-2 offering not even close or tempting at all, came back to haunt the righty. 

“They weren’t executed very well,” he said of the two forkballs. “They weren’t perfect pitches, mistake on my end, they could have been better.”

Senga then left another pitch right in the middle of the plate (this time a 90.4 mph cutter), and Graham Pauley cranked a two-RBI double to the opposite field in left-center to break the tie and proved to be the difference.

“We gave ‘em some extra outs, some extra bases, and they made him pay,” Mendoza said. “The two-out walk and then left pitch up. Just didn’t make a play there.”