All the hope and joy created by Tuesday’s walk-off win over the Kansas City Royals vanished faster than you can say Royce Lewis after Byron Buxton landed on the injured list, Joe Ryan turned in another crummy start and worst of all, former Twins pitcher Randy Dobnak — the Dobber — who toiled for a few seasons in the Twins’ minor league system, emerged Wednesday to shut out Minnesota across seven innings in a 4-0 win.
It was Dobnak’s first major league win since May 2021.
“That’s kind of crazy to think about,” Dobnak told MLB.com. “It’s also kind of funny that it was against the team I was with for nine years. It’s cool.”
Dobnak scattered four hits, while Ryan allowed four runs on eight hits, including another home run, across six innings with four strikeouts.
It was Ryan’s second straight sub-par outing, although it was much improved over the shellacking he took in Cleveland. Still, he now has a losing record at 6-7.
“Started out feeling a little better. Probably the adrenaline felt good,” Ryan told MLB.com. “Tried to settle in, certain things are a little bit off still, so trying to figure it out. Arm felt good, so that was good. But yeah, not putting the ball where I want to. Didn’t have the extra life that I was looking for today. So (it’s) frustrating.”
Despite the loss, the Twins are still in line for a series win. Bailey Ober gets the ball in the rubber match.
Extra innings…
–So, the Twins were a .500 team for about 24 hours before Wednesday’s loss. They are now 54-55, still three games behind the division-leading Chicago White Sox and 1.5 games back in the wild card race.
–Buck is again having hip problems. A return date has not been determined.
–The Twins on Tuesday appeared to be on their way to a 2-1 loss, but in the bottom of the ninth inning, Victor Caratini singled, Brooks Lee walked and then Royce Lewis stepped up and tripled off the wall to score two runs and a 3-2 walk-off win. Pretty dramatic stuff.
–The Twins banged out 10 hits in that game, but they also grounded into five double plays.
–The win on Tuesday went to reliever Jack Anderson, but it really belonged to Taj Bradley who exited with no decision. Bradley fanned 10 across six innings with two runs allowed.
–The last Twin to hit a walk-off triple? Ryan Doumit, who did it on June 1, 2013, in a 5-4 win over the M’s.
The Star Tribune was there:
The triple was the easy part. After Ryan Doumit laced a pitch to the warning track in right-center, driving home two runs and delivering the Twins a thrilling 5-4 victory over Seattle in the bottom of the ninth inning Saturday, he had some baseball rituals to observe: the uniform shredding, the Gatorade bucket and the shaving-cream pie.
“You can’t describe it,” he said of the abuse, shaving cream still smeared on his neck. “It’s awesome.”
Source: Newspapers.com
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