How did he do?
After sweeping the Pittsburgh Pirates in a 2-game series at home, the Minnesota Twins will now try to do the same thing on the road as they head to Pittsburgh for a 2-game series.
It’s been so long since we’ve seen baseball on the east coast that I completely spaced on the game starting an hour earlier and the weirdest part about that is I usually post the game time in the recap but, for some reason, I didn’t do that last night & I really don’t know why.
The Twins have won 5 consecutive games but they haven’t been the same exciting, crazy-offensive numbers games us spoiled Twins fans have become used to. Consider this, in the 1st 3 games, these Twins scored 27 runs (10, 3 & 14) against the White Sox. In the last 8 games, they’ve scored 31 runs and in the last 5 (all wins), they’ve scored 22. That’s 9 runs per game in the 1st 3 games down to under 4 per games (3.875) in their last 8 games and 4.4 in the 5-game winning streak. 4 runs per game is not as exciting as 9 runs per game but…
Winning is exciting and in those same categories, they went 2-1 in the first 3 games then 7-1 in the last 8 games and, of course, 5-0 in their last five games to equal a league-leading 9-2 record and they’ve done it with pitching and timely and/or a lot of offense and it’s been awhile since Twins fans could be proud of their team on both sides of the ball. The pitching may be as good as it’s ever been and now we get to focus on one of the exciting young pitching prospects with RHP Randy Dobnak pitching tonight and it’s a big deal since Pittsburgh is his hometown.
In July, Randy Dobnak started 2 games, Game 2 in Chicago (& Game 2 of the season) and the 2nd game against Cleveland last Friday, July 31st. He is 1-1 in those starts have pitched 9 innings total, 4 in Chicago and 5 last Friday vs Cleveland. He allowed 3 hits & 2 walks in each start and 1 run & earned run in Chicago but no runs against Cleveland. He also struck out 3 in Chicago and 4 vs Cleveland for an ERA of 1.00 and a WHIP (Walks + Hits per Inning Pitched) of 1.11.
So…how would he do tonight? He had never faced the Pittsburgh Pirates before so it’s likely that most of them didn’t know him but they do have Manager Derek Shelton who was the Minnesota Twins Bench Coach in the 2019 season so he knows him pretty well.
This was a pitching battle as only one run was scored in the first 8 innings of the game and that run was scored by the Twins in the top of the 2nd on a Marwin Gonzalez bloop 2-out single down the 3rd base line that scored Jake Cave from 2nd base. The ball actually landed on the 3rd-base/left field line and Pirates 3B Erik Gonzalez was chasing it down so the umpire couldn’t actually see the ball so he called it foul. The Twins challenged the call and it was overturned. 1-0 Twins.
There were only 7 hits and 3 walks in those 8 innings, too. That means there was some good pitching and the Twins Randy Dobnak was a big part of that. He went 6 innings pitching scoreless ball through all 6 and he allowed just 3 hits and no walks while striking out 1. One of those hits was a Josh Bell double so it’s easy to tell he had a great day. With the injuries to the pitching staff, it’s expected that Randy Dobnak will keep his spot
Only 2 of the 7 hits in the first 8 innings were of the extra-base variety, both of them being doubles, 1 for each team, Luis Arraez for the Twins and Josh Bell for the Pirates. A 1-0 game can definitely be exciting but the 9th really brought excitement because 6 runs were scored in that inning and 5 of those came off HRs.
A 1-0 game is exciting because the game can change on one swing of the bat so it’s always nice to get some insurance runs for your closer. The top of the 9th began with a CF Byron Buxton double, his first of the season, and it’s hard to believe the Twins and manager Rocco Baldelli would choose anyone other than the speedy Byron Buxton to be on 2nd base with no outs when wanting to expand their lead.
2B Luis Arraez flew out to left field for the first out then C Mitch Garver walked so the Pirates made a pitching change to bring in RHP Dovydas Neverauskas to face 1B Marwin Gonzalez and try to keep the game within reach for his offense. Marwin, a switch-hitter, was batting from the left side and he took the first pitch, a curveball inside, for a ball. The next pitch was a 93.3 MPH fastball right down the middle and Marwin did not miss it. He lined it to left-center to score Buxton from 2nd. 2-0 Twins.
Oh…but it wasn’t over yet. 3B Ehire Adrianza struck out looking for the 2nd out but that brought up RF Max Kepler who has been taking very good at-bats all season long and coming into this at-bat, he had 5 walks & 1 sacrifice fly in his last 8 plate appearances and had walked in his previous plate appearance on this night. He took 2 low fastballs for balls so he was ready for another fastball and, surprisingly it came and he crushed it to deep center field to change a 2-0 lead to a 5-0 lead as you can see (and hear) from the replay at the top of the article. Such a Sweet Sound, The Crack of the Bat!
That allowed Twins manager Rocco Baldelli to sit down LHP Taylor Rogers because there’s no reason to use your closer in a 5-run game. That meant young and recently called up RHP Jorge Alcala would get another chance to show what he can do on the mound. He’s known for having some control problems but he has good stuff and he showed it against the first batter. Even though it took 7 pitches, he blew a 97.6 fastball by JT Riddle for a swinging strikeout.
With the lead expanding from 1 to 5, RHP Jorge Alcala is pitching the 9th. He’s currently at 22 pitches thrown with 2 outs.
He struck out the 1st batter swinging at 97.6 mph HEAT! pic.twitter.com/wFPVLcjtQw
— Robb Dahlen (@TwinsTakes_com) August 6, 2020
He then walked Adam Frazier but got Kevin Newman to fly out to right field. That brought up Josh Bell and he was having a good night with 2 previous hits including a double. He had to foul off a 1-2 slider and he must’ve been looking for that fastball because he hit a 97.4 MPH High Fastball out of the park to put the Pirates on the board and get them within 3 at 5-2.
Jorge Alcala took care of that by getting Colin Moran to strike out swinging (on a check swing attempt) to end the game on 97.4 MPH HEATER!!! Yeah, 97 MPH should work out alright in the bullpen.
So…the Twins extend their winning streak to 6 games and will go for series & season sweep tomorrow with RHP Kenta Maeda (2-0, 1.64 ERA) on the mound.
Pittsburgh will send RHP JT Brubaker to the mound. He’s only pitched in 2 games this season, one 2-inning outing and one 3-inning outing. We thought he was maybe going to be an opener but he’s started 99 of the 101 games he’s played in his 5-year minor-league career so they were just getting him some work . In those 5 innings this season, he’s allowed 4 hits and 1 walk while hitting one batter and striking out 7.
THE GAME TIME IS 12:35pm tomorrow and it will air on the MLB Network and on Fox Sports North.
