May retired every hitter he faced, but Henderson’s runner still scored

Teoscar Hernández fouled off Dustin May’s 99.0-mph sinker and later a sweeper, extending their fifth-inning confrontation. May finished him with a 98.8-mph four-seamer for a swinging strikeout, his third out on a night when no hitter reached base against him.

May’s one-inning line contains no hits, walks or runs and one strikeout on 14 pitches. His assignment began with a complication that the individual line does not display: Tommy Edman stood at second with nobody out after Logan Henderson’s throwing error. May retired Mookie Betts on a grounder that moved Edman to third, then Freddie Freeman on a sacrifice fly that scored him.

The inherited run gave Los Angeles a 4–3 lead before Milwaukee answered in the bottom of the fifth and eventually won NLCS Game 2, 7–4. May began the Brewers’ run of 15 consecutive retired hitters, but he did not strand the runner he inherited.

A relief appearance compared with a starting sample

May threw five cutters, four sinkers, three sweepers and two four-seamers. All three pitches to the left-handed Freeman were cutters. Against Betts and Hernández, both right-handed, he used the wider mix. That small matchup sample helps explain selection without establishing a permanent repertoire decision.

There were no Brewers regular-season relief appearances in his official log. The primary comparison therefore uses 648 pitches from 10 Milwaukee starts, August 6 through September 26. His full regular season contained 2,399 pitches in 31 appearances across St. Louis and Milwaukee; the starting workload and two clubs make that broader sample different from this short assignment.

His sinker averaged 98.7 mph in Game 2 against 96.5 mph in the Brewers starting sample. The cutter averaged 95.3 mph against 93.2, and the sweeper 89.1 against 86.1. Those observed increases came from only four, five and three pitches respectively. A one-inning assignment permits a different effort pattern, but the measurements alone cannot establish his intent.

The inning ended through contact and one finish

May induced two misses in eight swings, both during the Hernández confrontation: a sweeper early in the count and the final four-seamer. His other four pitches to Hernández produced two fouls and two takes within the complete six-pitch sequence. The sinker’s four swings elsewhere and in that at-bat produced contact rather than misses.

Freeman’s fly ball left the bat at 84.6 mph and scored Edman. The Brewers challenged the play at home, but the safe call stood. Betts’ groundout was the other ball in play. Betts’ grounder was harder, at 98.4 mph. The two measured contacts averaged 91.5 mph, far too small a sample to characterize May’s contact suppression.

The final strikeout prevented the inning from continuing beyond that inherited run. May’s contribution was three outs without creating another baserunner, followed by four teammates keeping the Dodgers off base. His zero in the runs column describes ownership of the runner, while the sequence explains the actual score change.