MILWAUKEE � The Twins benefitted from having a stopper and a starter on Monday.
They needed a good outing from one of their starters, so Randy Dobnak played the stopper's role with five strong innings.
And they needed a position player to start doing something at the plate. That was Eddie Rosario, who blasted his fourth career grand slam.
The pair provided enough to lead the Twins a 4-2 victory over the Brewers in an opening game of a three-game series at Miller Park. The Twins sputtered into town leaking oil from a four-game losing streak, including a weekend sweep by the Royals. Monday's victory was much-needed _ they would have falled out of first place in the AL Central had they lost _ and provided them the opportunity to finish the eight-game road trip trending upward.
Both Dobnak and Rosario set the bar of expectations low for themselves early on.
Dobnak walked Eric Sogard on four pitches to start the game, then gave up a single to Keston Hiura. He got out of the two-on, no-out jam but needed 21 pitches.
The second inning was worse, as he gave up a one-out single to Luis Urias. Two batters later, Dobnak fell behind No. 9 hitter Orlando Arcia before serving up an RBI double.
That ball was hit to left toward Rosario, who could have made a play on it but looked to have mistimed his jump. That came after he threw to the wrong base during Sunday's loss at Kansas City and also dived for a ball that got past him.
Milwaukee led 1-0. But there was no here-we-go-again replay from a horrid weekend against the Royals.
Dobnak stepped up his game, stayed around the plate more and began fooling hitters. The righthander retired 10 of the last 11 Brewers hitters he faced, only yielding a single to Christian Yelich in the third.
The Twins offense hasn't been its usual destructive self of late, scoring only 10 runs in three losses to the Royals over the weekend. That all changed with one swing of the bat in the third inning.
Alex Avila, on a 3-2 pitch from righthander Adrian Houser, singled to center. Max Kepler hit a shift-defying squibber to the left side of the infield for single, then Jorge Polanco hit into a fielder's choice, beating out the double-play relay.
Houser's first pitch to Nelson Cruz nicked him on the arm, loading the bases for Rosario.
Houser entered the game 1-0 with a 0.75 ERA and a Dobnak-like knack for getting plenty of ground balls. But his first pitch to Rosario was a changeup that was near the middle of the zone. Rosario must have been looking for something offspeed because he was all over the pitch, driving it 402 feet over the right field wall for his fourth homer of the season and first grand slam since April 20, 2018.
In five innings, Dobnak gave up one run on four hits and a walk with three strikeouts on 79 pitches, with his ERA rising from 0.60 to 0.90.
Trevor May and Tyler Duffey pitched scoreless innings before Hiura pulled a Sergio Romo slider for a home run in the eighth. Taylor Rogers, after blowing a save Thursday in Pittsburgh, gave up a two-out double in the ninth but finished the game off for his fourth save.
