Cardinals' Dustin May Makes Startling Comment After Awful St. Louis Debut

You'd like to see a little more urgency, even in baseball

Mar 29, 2026; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Dustin May (3) pitches against the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images | Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

Dustin May's first start in a St. Louis Cardinals uniform couldn't have gone much worse.

In an 11-7 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday, May surrendered six earned runs and got touched up for 10 hits in only four innings of action. That made him the major league leader in hits allowed entering Monday, one ahead of Mike Burrows from the Pittsburgh Pirates.

May's career has been one of highs, lows, and constant injury concerns. Perhaps the Cardinals couldn't have expected him to dominate right from the jump when he finished last season on the injured list as a member of the Boston Red Sox.

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Dustin May's attempt at perspective raises red flags

Feb 14, 2026; Jupiter, FL, USA; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Dustin May (3) pitches during spring training at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

But after the game, May's attempt to put the situation into perspective and insinuate that his start was successful as long as he emerged from it healthy also shows that he and the Cardinals may be operating on different timelines.

"I mean, I've been in worse spots in my career, so to be able to go out and come out of it healthy, that's a positive thing," May said, per KDSK-TV. "There's definitely a lot of worse places I could be."

That's all well and good from May's perspective, as the 28-year-old hopes he still has 30 more starts to make on his one-year, $12.5 million contract.

But while he just wants to be healthy and pitch his best at the end of the season, the Cardinals know there's a world where they become trade deadline sellers, so every clunker May puts up now will do damage to the return they might be able to get for him in July.

"I felt like I was in a good spot coming into today," May said, per KDSK-TV. "I just missed too much (over the) heart of the plate."

It's not like May wasn't properly built up for the start, and his stuff was playing well during spring training. But the competitive environment of a major league game is something you can't really replicate until you face it head-on.