LOS ANGELES _ How the Los Angeles Dodgers missed their home crowd Saturday.
Not that the team needed the stands full to clinch a series win over the Colorado Rockies. Even with only cardboard cutouts in the seats and artificial noise echoing around the park, the Dodgers won 4-3 on a walk-off ninth-inning home run from Cody Bellinger.
It was in the celebration that the emptiness of a 56,000 seat venue set in.
The players skipped and danced as usual _ or, almost as usual, as they accounted for proper social distancing. But they only had themselves to cheer, their fan base still stuck at home as the team took its latest step toward the postseason.
Bellinger's blast ensured a strong start from Dustin May didn't go to waste.
The right-hander took a no-decision Saturday in a five-inning, one-run, two-hit start. But, with the schedule nearing its midway point, a player who wasn't originally expected to make the season-opening roster (he only got the opening day nod after an injury to Clayton Kershaw) continues to prove himself capable of an increasingly important role.
May only recorded one strikeout but stifled Rockies hitters in other ways, leaning on a sinker that topped out at 99 mph and a slightly slower cutter that generated an out seven of the eight times it was put in play. His two hits allowed were a career low in an appearance of more than two innings. And of his 81 pitches, 54 went for strikes.
"Staying in the zone is probably my biggest thing," May said last week after allowing seven hits and two runs to the Angels on a day his location occasionally faltered. "Being able to put the fastball on both sides of the plate and then just play off of that."
Indeed, May's only real trouble Saturday resulted from bad counts. In the third, Sam Hilliard hammered an elevated 2-and-0 sinker into the right-field bleachers. Two innings later, May had to work around a one-out walk to Hilliard, stranding him at third only after second baseman Kike Hernandez wrangled a sharply hit two-out grounder to retire the side.
"Dustin has to continue to be mindful of getting strike one," manager Dave Roberts said during an in-game interview with SportsNet LA. "When he gets behind, you start trying to work your way, get back into a count. That's what happened with Hilliard."
Still, May continued to show growth, lowering his season ERA to 2.79 and extending his apparent lead in the National League's rookie of the year race. Entering Saturday, he was already the odds-on betting favorite to win the award, which hasn't been claimed by a Dodgers pitcher since Hideo Nomo in 1995.
"It's unbelievable stuff he has with the sinker, cutter," catcher Will Smith told SportsNet LA, watching Saturday's game from the stands as he prepares to come off the injured list for Sunday's series finale. "And then he just competes. Every pitch, it's 100% effort. He gets fired up when a guy gets a base hit. He's competing. He's taking after Kershaw, watching him. He's watching Buehler. It's fun. It's competitive."
With May dealing, the Dodgers built an early lead. They scored in the first thanks to heads up base running from Mookie Betts, who reached home from first after Corey Seager singled and got caught in a rundown trying to reach second. Chris Taylor doubled the lead in the second with a solo home run to right.
But then the Dodgers gifted the Rockies the lead. In the sixth, a throwing error from Seager led to a game-tying sacrifice fly from Nolan Arenado. In the seventh, Colorado took the lead after a wild pitch from Blake Treinen allowed a runner at third to score.
The Dodgers responded in the next half inning, however, loading the bases with no outs and evening the score on a Chris Taylor double-play ground ball.
In the ninth, Bellinger turned on the second pitch he saw and sent it over the right-field wall.
