With the Milwaukee Brewers one win away from the first World Series title in franchise history, manager Pat Murphy turned to the one pitcher on his staff who had been there before. Dustin May was named the starter for Game 4 of the 2026 World Series against the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday 27 October, handed the ball for a potential clincher with Milwaukee holding a 3-0 series lead.
May Gets the Game 4 Start
The announcement came only hours before first pitch, as the Brewers confirmed that May would start against Rays right-hander Griffin Jax. It was a notable show of trust in a pitcher the Brewers had mostly used in relief during the postseason: only one of May’s four playoff appearances before Game 4 had been a start, and the Brewers had otherwise leaned on Jacob Misiorowski, Logan Henderson, and Robert Gasser as their go-to starters.
May’s case rested on experience. He was the only pitcher on the Milwaukee staff with previous World Series experience, having pitched for the Los Angeles Dodgers in their 2020 championship run. Manager Pat Murphy opted against using rookie Shane Drohan as an opener, as the Brewers had done in the National League Championship Series, and instead gave May a conventional start — the role he has filled for most of his career, starting 88 of the 102 regular-season games he had pitched in before the series.
A Season of Two Halves
May, 29, joined Milwaukee on 3 August, just ahead of the trade deadline, in a move from the St. Louis Cardinals. His time with the Brewers had been uneven: across 10 starts after the move he posted a 5.65 ERA with a 1.42 WHIP, striking out 38 and walking 15 in 36.2 innings. Over the full regular season he finished 7-9 with a 4.70 ERA and 144 strikeouts in 145.2 innings — both the strikeouts and the innings totals were career highs.
There were bright spots in that record, too. Against the San Diego Padres, his Game 4 opponents in the division series, May had been excellent during the season, giving up only three earned runs with 22 strikeouts against five walks in 22 innings across three starts, including a one-hit shutout in June.
May’s Postseason So Far
May’s postseason before Game 4 told a similar story of flashes and frustration. He started Game 3 of the National League Division Series against San Diego, allowing two earned runs on three hits with two walks and three strikeouts in three innings, and took a no-decision. His next appearances came in relief, including outings against his former team, the Dodgers, and a scoreless inning in the Brewers’ 5-4 win over Tampa Bay in Game 2 of the World Series on 24 October.
In total, May had pitched eight postseason innings across four games, with a 5.63 ERA, a 1.25 WHIP, and five strikeouts. He was due to pitch on two days’ rest after that Game 2 relief outing, with a rested Brewers bullpen behind him and the option for Murphy to go to it early if the game demanded it.
What Was at Stake
The stakes could hardly have been higher. A win in Game 4 would complete a sweep of the Rays and deliver Milwaukee its first World Series championship, capping a postseason run in which the Brewers had lost only once — coincidentally, the one game May had started. A sweep of both the League Championship Series and the World Series would also be historic: no team had swept both since the Championship Series expanded to a best-of-seven format in 1985, with the 1976 Cincinnati Reds the last to do it in the old format.
For May personally, Game 4 was a chance at a second ring, six years after his first with the Dodgers — this time not as a young pitcher on a star-studded roster, but as the man trusted to close out a series for a franchise still chasing its first title. Reports of the decision were first broken by Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, and confirmed by the Brewers hours before the game.
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