Dustin Might closed his eyes, took a breath and held his head suspended towards the heavens.
For a quick second, shortly earlier than he started warming up for the primary inning on Tuesday evening, the Dodgers’ pitcher appeared to soak up the importance of his milestone second — reflecting one final time on the 685-day journey that introduced him there.
Not since Might 17, 2023, had Might final stood atop the Dodger Stadium mound. That day, he suffered an elbow harm that led to a flexor tendon surgical procedure and Tommy John revision, the second main arm process of his younger MLB profession.
Throughout the 22 months that adopted, the hard-throwing right-hander endured a rehab technique of uniquely tough circumstances, getting near a return halfway via final season earlier than a freak accident at dinner final July pressured him into emergency, and season-ending, surgical procedure to restore a daunting esophagus tear.
As Might lastly labored his method again to full energy this spring, the expertise gave the 27-year-old renewed perspective. He was now not a promising younger prospect. He was unable to contribute to the Dodgers’ 2024 World Sequence championship.
However after a lot time away, and such a scary medical saga final summer season, he was merely grateful to as soon as once more be again on the rubber.
And within the Dodgers’ 3-1 win towards the Atlanta Braves — one which prolonged their excellent begin to the season to 7-0 — he marked his long-awaited return with an emotionally stirring efficiency.
In 5 innings Tuesday, Might gave up only a single unearned run and a solitary second-inning single as his solely hit. He struck out six batters. He escaped a pair essential jams. And most notably, the place he as soon as operated with a fiery, boisterous in-game mound presence, he did all of it with a calmer, extra poised pitch-by-pitch demeanor — starting a brand new chapter in his profession with newfound maturation.
“As scary as it was, I think it put some things in perspective for him,” assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness mentioned earlier than first pitch of Might’s practically two-year absence. “We’re just excited and happy that he’s OK. And are pumped to see him pitch.”
Dodgers coaches have been as soon as anticipating Might to return through the second half of final season. Within the first week of July, they have been mapping out his impending minor-league rehab project in pitching division conferences.
However, days away from returning to stay recreation motion, Might went to dinner in Arizona on July 10 and tore his esophagus on a chunk of a salad that acquired lodged in his throat. That evening, he went to the hospital and was rushed into surgical procedure.
“I probably wouldn’t have made it through the night if I didn’t have it,” Might recalled medical doctors telling him of the surgical procedure, whereas recounting the ordeal for the primary time this spring. “It was definitely a life-altering event.”
Dodgers pitcher Dustin Might breathes in deeply after retiring Atlanta Braves leadoff hitter Michael Harris II Tuesday evening at Dodger Stadium.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Occasions)
On the time, the Dodgers have been on a street journey to Philadelphia and Detroit. And as coaches began getting early data of what had occurred to the pitcher, they virtually couldn’t imagine the gravity of the scenario.
“We have a message [chat] with medical updates, and got a thing saying, ‘Hey, he had a choking incident. He choked on some salad,’” pitching coach Mark Prior mentioned. “Everybody’s like, ‘Huh? OK, that doesn’t sound great.’ But then we learned, ‘Oh no, it was an emergency surgery.’ We didn’t hear about that for a couple days.”
“It was crazy,” McGuiness added, significantly shocked upon studying it’d been attributable to a salad. “Super scary initially.”
When the Dodgers subsequent noticed Might throughout a street collection in Phoenix a pair months later, the pitcher was again on his toes, and within the early phases of a restoration course of that prevented him from lifting something heavier than 10 kilos till after the season.
However nonetheless, the already lanky right-hander seemed concerningly skinny from the liquid-only weight-reduction plan he was pressured to undertake within the wake of his surgical procedure. And when coaches requested in regards to the scar from his process, he lifted his shirt to indicate a protracted vertical incision operating up the size of his chest.
“It almost looked like an open-heart-type surgery,” Prior mentioned. “So to see where he’s at now, it’s pretty incredible.”
Certainly, regardless of not returning to full energy till across the flip of the New Yr, Might confirmed as much as spring coaching in surprisingly spectacular form. From the outset of camp, he emerged as a front-runner for the No. 5 spot within the group’s opening day rotation. And as he stored ramping up over the course of the preseason, the group observed his altered strategy to the sport.
The place he as soon as tried to overpower opposing hitters with an upper-90s fastball, Might targeted on enhancing his command and sustaining constant management of his arsenal. Relatively than throwing at “full max effort all the time,” McGuiness mentioned, he began “pitching efficiently at a good effort level, without blowing it out every single throw.”
“He can tap into that bigger velo when he needs it,” McGuiness added. “But [without it], he can actually kind of move the ball around, command it a little better.”
It was a dynamic Might placed on full show in his return Tuesday evening.
The place his fastball and two-seamer as soon as averaged round 97 mph, they every dropped to the 95 mph vary towards the Braves. It didn’t cease Might from nonetheless strolling three batters, and throwing solely 46 strikes in his 81 pitches. However it helped him execute in probably the most essential conditions, like when he stranded two aboard within the second inning after Mookie Betts’ throwing error at shortstop led to his lone unearned run, or when he acquired forward of Nick Allen with two strikes within the high of the fifth to arrange his sweeper for an inning-ending double-play.
The opposite large change on Tuesday — in a recreation the Dodgers got here again to win late with the assistance of Betts’ go-ahead two-run house run within the sixth inning off reigning Cy Younger Award winner Chris Sale — was with Might’s emotional state.
As an alternative of cursing and screaming each time his adrenaline surged, the now sixth-year big-leaguer stored a cooler head. After hanging out the aspect within the first, he merely skipped his method again to the dugout. In moments of frustration, he did little greater than crane his neck.
It was all reflective of the lengthy street Might had traveled to get again to this stage, and the adversity-hardened mindset he was pressured to evolve alongside the way in which.
“It’s kind of really made him appreciate taking the mound, being active in the big leagues,” supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned. “Just like all things, as you get different experiences, you kind of have a different perspective.”
