The Dodgers are starting right-hander Dustin May against the Braves in tonight’s NLCS Game 7, per various reporters (including Ken Gurnick of MLB.com). The hard-throwing sinkerballer started Game 5 of the series on Friday and went two innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on three hits with a pair of walks and three strikeouts.
May threw 55 pitches just two days ago, so he surely won’t be expected to work deep into tonight’s game. Game 2 starter Tony Gonsolin seems likely to offer bulk innings in relief. Of course, it’s a winner-take-all contest, so manager Dave Roberts will have a quick hook on all of his pitchers tonight.
The 23-year-old May recorded a 2.57 ERA/4.62 FIP in 56 regular season innings. He’s allowed only one earned run in 6.2 innings across four appearances this postseason.
I stand corrected but I think it will still be a bullpen game. Thought it would be Gonsolin to start, followed by a quick hook. I guess Roberts doesn’t have much faith in him.
It seems likely Gonsolin will get most of the innings, so that looks like faith. May will go one, possibly two innings. Urias should also be available.
You’re absolutely right BlueSkies. It looks like May as an “opener” followed by Gonsolin to handle the load. Roberts wouldn’t pitch a guy he doesn’t believe in – we’ve seen that for years, for better or worse.
I saw the earlier speculation that they might use Graterol as the opener. How silly of an idea was that? Who would they use to close, Joe Kelly?
No choice
Acuna needs to break out tonight
He really does but I’m 99.9% sure he’s playing hurt and no one is taking about it. I’ll bet now, he’ll be having surgery on his wrist this offseason shortly after the season is over
Idk but he needs to break out if they want to win the game, it’s been all on freedie freeman & Ozuna
Not one mention of Urias? I feel like he’ll pitch out of the bullpen on 3 days rest. I get that he threw a 101 pitches, but they were stress free with the 14 run lead. I think he and Gonsolin will both pitch.
Also , I think a lot of people forgot to mention that Price opted out too
All arms on deck for both teams.
After seven games in seven days the deckhands have to be a pretty weary.
All hands on deck for the Dodgers its looking like…hope Ian Anderson can hold down the fort for a bit cuz Dodgers gonna throw every arm at them. 7-9 and Acuna need to help out tonight in a big way…Should be a good game either way!
Acuna needs to break out finally , it’s been all on freeman this series & Ozuna
Ozzie and Dansby have been okay. 7-9 are killing us.
Like yesterday , Had bases loaded with no outs and didn’t score nothing. I think in that spot, wish they still had donaldson
Seven through nine have been the biggest issue. When you have 3 guys not hitting all bunched up that way it sinks the offense. That’s 1 or 2 innings of easy outs every time through the order.
I’m not ready to look toward the off-season just yet, but when the time comes the Braves need to find some consistency at 3B. I don’t trust Riley.
Markakis shouldn’t be starting, but that’s a byproduct of the Duvall injury. That’s the breaks sometimes.
Hopefully at least one, preferably both, can find some lightning in a bottle tonight.
Imo Acuna Jr has to break out tonight , he’s gotta set the tone. I feel like if the braves score atleast 3-4 runs , Might be enough for Anderson
give me Markakis with 2 outs base loaded over Acuna any day of the week.
Done. You can have Kakes, I’ll take Acuna…
Nick can’t hit hard heat anymore. He was completely over-powered a few times last night, which I’m sure didn’t go unnoticed by the Dodgers.
No one did. He threw one pitch all night and the Braves looked like a minor league team out there.
Minor league team? Lol. Be serious. They’re facing a really strong Dodger team. It’s not as if they’re getting carved up by the Pirates.
Freeman has had good ABs. Ozuna just missed a HR. Ozzie and TDA aren’t easy outs. Acuna and Dansby have to be accounted for.
You would think all the marbles are on the Braves side tonight.
Anderson is the Braves best starter.
Dodgers going with bullpen game
It is only fitting to add another blow to this city’s legacy.
Anderson is not the best starter. Max Fried is the ace on the staff
imagine if they had soroka
Imagine if they had Price. See how that works?
At this point I’d rather have a healthy Soroka than Price.
No matter, really. The point is both teams are down a top-of-the-rotation starter.
Fried is not an ace but we all have opinions.
He may be considered the Braves best starter though, which is understandable since he has far more innings than Anderson.
However, he is not an ace. An ace does not put his team down 3 runs in the first.
People like throwing the ace labels on everybody these days.
Please explain to me how a guy who accumulated twice as many strikeouts as walks, had a whip near 1, an ERA+ of 212 and nearly 3WAR in a shortened season isn’t an ace?
you answered your own question. Shortened season!
Dude, they all played shortened seasons. It’s not as if he was a late year call-up and I’m comping him to guys who played 162. He’s likely going to win the Cy.
Once again you use opinions and not facts.. until got hurt he was the pitcher in the national league. So how come very few other pitchers did that good since it was a shortened season? I can give you a list of true aces and hofers that have surrendered 3 runs in the first inning and that would be a very long list.
If he wins it, you can add it to more useless accolades the Braves accumulate and celebrate.
I’m just looking forward to a pennant or the WS title.
But again, I don’t blame people celebrating division titles as it is the only thing they can celebrate with this organization.
Every ace has a bad day once in awhile. Haven’t you heard the saying about great pitchers?
“If you’re gonna get him, you need to get yo him early.”
Three runs in the first inning does not disqualify one as an ace.
Again, no one is arguing that he was or wasn’t the best pitcher in the league this year. Even if he was, it does not automatically make him an ace. An ace is someone you can depend on to win you big games – he failed two straight years. He is not dependable.
He is reaching the Faulty level of overrated. You same people kept trying to convince me he was an ace too.
Exactly, Sevans. Tom Glavine notoriously had trouble with the first inning. He’s a HoF pitcher.
He only gave up 3 runs. Three. I’m sorry, that’s on the offense to overcome. Three runs over 7 is a quality start.
Here we go again. The Maddux/Glavine/Smoltz reassurance will never go away.
I respect his subsequent innings. He did great, That doesn’t change my mind though that he is dependable. He didn’t prove it to me again.
Every single great pitcher or ace has had a bad first inning b4. Such an dumb statement. Tell me who you think is an ace? I will research his starts and I am positive I wil find where he has had a start where his first inning was bad. He still kept the team in the game afterwards and the offense failed to do its job.
That argument will not work because an ace label takes time to develop. Throwing that label early on a pitcher will bound to disappoint you. Admittedly, I’m at fault to because I’m already calling Anderson an ace. I guess the thing with Anderson is he looks like he is not overwhelmed. He looks confident in himself. I just don’t see that with Fried.
Hopefully, he makes me look good tonight. I have confidence in him completely. We will see!
I expect another BS call or mental error in this game that will cost either team a win. Hopefully it is not Acuna!
MadBum, MadBum is his favorite.
I’m confident if Bum pitched game 3, the game would be a lot closer ).
Wright experiment needs to go this off season.
Have fun nailing jello to the wall. Meanwhile baseball is being played,
Ugh ask glavine he did it constantly
Trevor Bauer disagrees with you.
So fried will finish in top 4-5 in cy young vote so how is he overrated? Look, verlander, Cole, scherzer, Bieber have all lost big games so they can’t be counted on according to you. Are they all overrated also? Posts continue to out each other with statements that are pure opinion and sound dumb.
When does Kershaw come in lol
Seems like a bold move to pitch Mays… go big or go home! LETS GO BRAVES!!!!
Mays in in his mid-eighties, and was known more as a CF. This is unless you meant Billy, who was a pitch man, but he’s also dead.
This is gonna be a hell of a game. I can’t wait.
I’m nervous. Lol. Smoltz was talking about game 7 being fun for the viewer last night, and the entire time I’m thinking, “Uhm… No!” As a Braves fan, closing out game 5 or 6 would have been fun for this viewer! The Dodgers are a heckuva good team, though. Knew this wouldn’t be easy.
Game 5 when Ozuna left early changed the momentum to the dodgers, they would of won that game if he didn’t mess up
I might be missing something, but this is the biggest moment of May’s career thus far, right?
I’m sure Joe Buck will talk about that ad nauseum tonight. That and May’s hair.
Yeah, I swear Joe Buck and the crew at *** (not sponsored), just want the Dodgers to lose so bad. They bring out all of the stats like “Ohh they haven’t lost while up 5 runs in the first inning in 17 tries”… “Ohh well the Dodgers haven’t lost a game any of the times Will Smith has hit a homer off of Will Smith”. Talk about trying to jinx a team!
Dodgers are cursing David Price right now.
Probably not
No respect for a man who deserts his team.
Exactly. He chose to sit out. Most likely Covid was not the only reason he didn’t show up. Most likely him not playing was protest-minded as well.
May better step up tonight. Dodgers were reluctant to include him in any deal to improve the rotation. Lux, May and others probably could of gotten DeGrom
I agree with you on price. Never liked the dude when he was on the rays and i’m from tampa.
He said, without any evidence.
why should he care if you don’t respect his decision? get a life, troll.
I won’t fault any player for opting out. There were so many unknowns.
Why did they take May out of the game? Stupid