PITTSBURGH _ Fortunately for the Steel City, its native son, Randy Dobnak, returned on Wednesday to pitch at PNC Park.
That guaranteed that the Pirates would have some television ratings on a night in which the Penguins appeared in the NHL playoffs.
Fortunately for the Twins, Dobnak was in a Minnesota uniform. And the ground ball inducing maven was at his best as he crafted six strong innings as the Twins grinded out a 5-2 win for their third consecutive win over Pittsburgh with one game left to play in the home and home series.
The Twins are 10-2 through 12 games for the first time in club history and second time in franchise history, joining the 1930 Senators.
Dobnak, in his previous outing, shut out Cleveland through five innings, but it was much more arduous than Wednesday's start. Cleveland hitters worked him over while fouling off 30 pitches. Dobnak never gave in, stayed aggressive and was rewarded.
On Wednesday, Dobnak shut out the Pirates for six innings, needing just 71 pitches to do so. He gave up a first inning infield single to Josh Bell then promptly retired the next eight batters.
Dobnak threw 19 pitches in the first inning then never more than 12 in any other frame. He threw 11 in the fourth, needed just nine in the fifth and used just eight pitches in the sixth. Pittsburgh batters made 10 ground ball outs, a reflection of the sinkage on Dobnak's fastball.
He made a major case to be allowed become the first Twins starter to pitch in the seventh inning this season. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli chose to bring in a bullpen that began the day with a 2.68 ERA.
Cody Stashak retired the side in over in the seventh, and Tyler Duffey did the same striking out two along the way.
The Twins offense woke up in the ninth inning against the Pirates bullpen. Marwin Gonzalez singled to drive in one run. to make it 2-0. Max Kepler batted with two men on connected with a 2-0 fastball from Dovydas Neverauskas that led to someone in the Twins dugout to scream, "Owwwww!" as it cleared the wall in right-center for a 5-0 Twins lead.
Dobnak was born in South Park, Pa., just outside Pittsburgh. The opportunity for him to pitch at home has been tempered by the pandemic. He would have had 200 friends and family members at PNC Park on Wednesday if fans were allowed into stadiums, but they were not.
The impact of that hit home as Dobnak rocked and fired his first pitch on Wednesday. The historic Roberto Clemente Bridge, easily visible from most of the stadium, is shut down to allow for pedestrian crossing the Allegheny River on game nights. On Wednesday, motor vehicles buzzed across the bridge as the game commenced.
The Twins grabbed a lead in the second inning and held onto it _ although replay was required.
Jake Cave was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and moved to second on a ground out to third by Luis Arraez. Mitch Garver struck out, but Marwin Gonzalez followed with a sinking fly ball down the left field line that was chased after Pittsburgh third baseman Erik Gonzalez. Gonzalez reached for the ball but it fell to the ground and was ruled a foul ball by third base umpire Jose Navas.
Not so fast, the Twins said.
Replay showed that the ball clearly hit the foul line. Marwin Gonzalez was credited with a single and Cave was awarded home because he would have scored from second without a problem.
Pittsburgh righthander Trevor Williams was just as stingy as Dobnak was, avoiding hard contact for seven innings before Pirates manager Derek Shelton called the bullpen in. In six innings, the Twins were held to one run on three hits. Williams didn't pile up the ground ball outs like Dobnak did, but Erik Gonzalez made two strong plays behind him to keep the Twins from building any momentum.
For eight innings, at least.
