I watched Trevor May pitch a couple of times in the Arizona Fall League in 2013. He didn't appear to have a breaking ball. He looked like a pitcher who was going to wind up as a long reliever, maybe as the Twins' next Anthony Swarzak.

He had a good season as a starter at Class AAA Rochester in 2014, with a 2.85 ERA. Once called up, he contributed to the Twins' woebegone pitching with a 7.88 ERA in 10 appearances (nine starts).

I wasn't able to manage optimism on May morphing into a satisfactory big-league starter until overhearing Tom Kelly saying some good things about him last month in Fort Myers.

When Kelly sees the potential for good things, my assumption is that good things are likely to happen.

May was going to start the season again in Rochester, until Erv Santana was suspended for the use of steroids. May started the home opener last Monday against Kansas City. The game turned into an abomination, although the Twins' fielding had more to do with that than May's pitching.

He made his second start on Sunday vs. Cleveland. The Indians have been a dud with the bats so far, but it is an impressive lineup with all those lefties against right-handed pitching. May went six innings and didn't come unglued when Cleveland took its shot with three straight two-out singles in the third.

May flied out Carlos Santana to end the inning. He was going to leave with a 4-1 lead, and then Torii Hunter's three-run home run made it 7-1.

May's throwing OK. He's got a chance. And on Sunday, he was without his curveball. Couldn't command it, so May threw fastballs and changeups. His changeup is good. Maybe the curve is going to be a bonus.

A couple of other notes from Sunday's 7-2 victory that gave the Twins a 4-2 homestand to open 2015 at Target Field:

*Lefthander Aaron Thompson followed May with two scoreless innings. That is the third time manager Paul Molitor has allowed Thompson to pitch two innings. Blaine Boyer and J.R. Graham also have done it once apiece.

I'm assuming Tim Stauffer currently is looked at as the long man, so I find it enouraging to see the middle relievers being used for more than one inning. And why's that, you ask?

Because, with all those five-inning starts of recent seasons, Ron Gardenhire had a tendency to march in four relievers for one inning apiece, and then a day later he would complain about having to use his "whole bullpen.''

Drove me nuts. Had nothing to do with the Twins losing 93, 96 or 99 games, but it would turn into excuse to go to a 13-man pitching staff. And then Gardy would complain about having only a three-player bench.

As I said, there probably weren't two games worth of difference in wins and losses with Gardy's approach, but it drove me nuts, and I'm all giddy to see Molitor going away from that.

*On Sunday, there was a Cleveland line drive that required the center fielder to move in rapidly and catch the ball chest-high. There were a couple of other balls hit deep that required the center fielder to "get on his horse" to get there.

Those balls were caught routinely. That's because Shane Robinson was playing there.

Forget the three hits. The fact the Twins and their followers can be confident that a ball with a chance to be caught in center field is going to be caught is enough to make Robinson the best choice there for the moment.