LOS ANGELES — The path of a pitcher returning from Tommy John surgery is rarely straight and pointing north. It usually zigs and zags, lunges forward and lurches back, with encouraging stretches of dominance offset by shaky moments of self-doubt.
Which is why Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Dustin May’s rocky start against the San Diego Padres on Friday night should be neither surprising nor a major cause for concern.
May’s stuff — primarily a four-seam fastball that topped out at 100.3 mph, a lively 97-mph sinker and a knee-buckling 86-mph curve — looked every bit as electric as it did in his first two strong starts back from his 2021 elbow ligament-replacement procedure.
