Minnesota Twins RHP Randy Dobnak has been the Minnesota Twins best pitcher so far in these 15 games of 2020 baseball. Before tonight’s game, he was 2-0 after starting 3 games & allowing just 1 run on 9 hits and 4 walks while striking out 8 in 15 innings for an ERA (Earned Run Average) of 0.60 and WHIP (Walks + Hits per Inning Pitched) of 0.867.
He started tonight’s game with 4 straight balls (3B Eric Sogard), 5 if you count the 2nd batter, who ended up singling (SS Keston Hiura) but he got LF Christian Yelich to ground into a force out for the 1st out. That advanced the runners to 2nd & 3rd but he got 1B Justin Smoak to strike out swinging for the 2nd out the got CF Avisail Garcia to fly out to center field to end the threat.
In the bottom of the 2nd, Dobnak allowed a 1-out single to Luis Urias and a 2-out RBI-Double to Orlando “Don’t Call Me Oswaldo” Arcia to allow the Milwaukee Brewers to take a 1-0 lead but he got Eric Sogard to fly out to center to limit the damage.
The Twins got a great night at the plate from backup (?) C Alex Avila from behind and at the plate. He led off the top of the 3rd inning with a great at-bat to work the count full before lining a single up the middle. RF Max Kepler followed with a single off the end of his bat down the 3rd baseline to beat the shift (read LineDrive single) to get 2 runners on with no outs.
Jorge Polanco then grounded into a force out but he runs hard to stay out of the double play and saves an out.* DH Nelson Cruz was then hit by a pitch to load the bases for one Eddie Rosario and Eddie didn’t wait long to make an impact. He swung at the 1st pitch and turned a 0 into a 4 with his 4th HR of the season and his 4th career Grand Slam (this is the video below, too)! We call that…A WHOLE LOTTA ROSIE!!!
*How many times so far this season has he done that? He makes contact and gets hits. He makes contact and extends innings with his hustle! JO PO!!!!
The rest of the game was pretty much all pitching as Randy Dobnak ended up pitching 5 innings of 1-run ball allowing just 4 hits and 1 walk while striking out 3. The Minnesota Twins bullpen pitched the final 4 innings with each of RHP Trevor May, Tyler Duffey, Sergio Romo and LHP Taylor Rogers going 1 inning & allowing 1 hit. Romo gave up a solo HR to leadoff the 8th inning but then got a strikeout and 2 pop outs to end the inning. Taylor Rogers came in for his 4th save and gave up a 2-out double to bring the tying run to the plate but ended up striking out Mark Mathias to end the game. They struck out 5 altogether.
After the game, Randy Dobnak was asked where his confidence level is right now:
“The defense has been unbelievable. For me, I’m not going to strike out the world so I’m trying to get the ball on the ground and having those guys behind me in the field is awesome. I can trust them with anything, really.”
Other Notes:
- Some great plays on Defense from Ehire Adrianza at 3B.
- Buxton went 0-4 with 3 swinging strikeouts.
- Avila ended up going 1-2 with a 1B, 2 walks & a strikeout
- Along with calling a great game from behind the plate.
- One thing that’d be awesome to hear is the talk in the dugout about adjustments to a pitcher.
- A teammate telling another teammate, “Hey! Watch for ? when he (the opposing pitcher) does ?”
- We all know there are adjustments made throughout a season but how many little adjustments are made throughout an inning and a game?
Tomorrow night at 7:10pm:
The Twins are going with another bullpen games so:
RHP Tyler Clippard will open the game (0-0, 1.17 ERA)
vs
RHP Josh Lindblom (1-0, 4.15 ERA)
Here’s a Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet from TwinsDaily.com to show you where the bullpen is at for tomorrow night’s game and who might be available:
